Starvation threatens prisoners in Lebanon

The difficult conditions of prisoners in Lebanon have reached the point of depriving them of food, and the possibility of starvation for thousands of them, after the state has become unable to pay the dues of merchants and contractors who supply food to the security forces responsible for managing prisons. This is in addition to the delay in the trials of prisoners as a result of the judges’ retreat, the absence of medical supplies, and the lack of hygiene in prisons. The recent concerns have grown with the contractors announcing that they will stop delivering foodstuffs as of early April, after debts owed to them by the state have accumulated.

A security source concerned with the prison file admitted that this development is “worrying, especially since the contracts concluded with contractors expire on April 4, and they do not wish to renew them, and they informed the security forces that they have stopped delivering materials, and the law does not oblige them to continue with that.” The source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that “meetings have begun between the security forces and the Ministry of Finance to address this crisis, and an attempt to collect a financial advance for contractors to cover part of their debts.” One of the contractors said that the debts incurred by the state have accumulated for seven months, amounting to about one hundred billion pounds. It was equal to 500 thousand dollars, and now it has lost its value and is less than one hundred thousand dollars.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s advisor, former minister Nicolas Nahas, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Mikati’s last words about his desire to perform i’tikaaf aim at “a warning and the first cry” to reduce the differences and move away from tension that has reached a dangerous stage in the approach to the decision regarding By postponing daylight savings time, before reversing the decision. Nahhas indicated that Mikati would not go to i’tikaf at the present time, but rather he made his cry to say that the differences flow outside the fundamental problems that Lebanon and the Lebanese suffer from.

Nahas revealed that Mikati will call for a government session next week, after he canceled the cabinet session that he called for last Monday to discuss one item related to the repercussions of financial and monetary conditions on salaries and wages in all sectors.
Thousands of prisoners in Lebanon are threatened with starvation