“Under torture, I will confess anything” ...Syrian Prisoners in Lebanese ‘Slaughterhouses’

Pascale Sawma

Based on testimonies by several prisoners from their own cells, this investigative report documents the suffering of Syrian prisoners in Roumieh prison and other detention and interrogation centers. The intersected testimonies confirmed the existence of torture, extracting confessions under torture and other human rights’ violations including trials in military court, poor quality of food and health services.

In Roumieh prison, around 3,700 prisoners sleep on beds not exposed to the sun for years. They try to compress their bodies as much as possible since overcrowding ranges between 190 and 380 per cent while the rate of non-sentenced prisoners is around 79 per cent of the total number.

Their bodies bear scars of torture and ill-treatment during investigations that in many cases turn into psychological and physical intimidation sessions. At best, these skinny emaciated bodies appear to be a reflection of the poor quality of food, health and humanitarian services, and the delays in trials. These suffering increased after the economic crisis, the judges’ strike, and the challenges imposed by Covid-19 and then Cholera at a later time.

Until the writing date of this report, and due to the failure of providing medicines, treatment, and ignoring the patients’ calls for help, 19 inmates died in Lebanese prisons in 2022.

Based on several testimonies extracted from prisoners residing in their cells, this investigative report focuses on the suffering of Syrian prisoners particularly in Roumieh and other detention and investigation centers. After intersecting the testimonies, the existence of torture, extracting confessions under torture and several human rights violations was confirmed. Additionally, most of the prisoners were referred to the military court which is an exceptional court that many developed countries abolished or reduced its authorities to issues related to the military personnels and incidents within military barracks. This is added to other problems such as poor quality of food and lack of health services.

After contacting human rights organizations, we intentionally did not mention the full names of our witnesses in order to ensure their safety and prevent additional violence and suffering. 

This violence was documented by Amnesty International in a report issued in 2021, entitled ‘I Wished I Would Die - Syrian refugees arbitrarily detained on terrorism-related charges and tortured in Lebanon.’ This report documents a series of violations committed mainly by the Lebanese Army Intelligence Directorate against 26 detainees, including the absence of a fair trial and torture such as beatings with metal sticks, electric cables, and plastic pipes. Detainees also described how they were hung upside down or forced to take physically stressful positions for long periods of time.

After I asked the author of Amnesty International report if any official investigation had been conducted after publishing the findings, she answered by “No” and confirmed that she did not receive any news regarding the issue. This obviously means the continuation of inhumane practices in light of continuous principle of non-accountability, chaos, and cruelty.

In this sense, this investigative report attempts to monitor more of these non-stopping illegal and inhumane practices including the death of the Syrian youngster Bashar Abd Al-Saud under torture days after his arrest in August 2022. It is important to note that this was not the sole death case of a Syrian refugee who was arrested and died during detention.

In 2017, people living in Aarsal received the bodies of three Syrian detainees who died under torture after they were arrested during the raid campaigns on the town’s refugee camp. The Lebanese army denied any incident of torture and attributed the causes of death to the deteriorating health condition of detainees.

Torture Until Signing

On the 23^rd of November 2015, Muhammad (pseudonym) was arrested at Beirut Airport on charges of affiliating to ‘Jabhat al-Nusra’ and was taken to the Army Intelligence. “I remained standing for twenty-four hours straight, blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back,” stated Muhammad while describing how the Army Intelligence started the investigation with him.

During the investigation, no part of his body was left without receiving blows by various means, starting with kicking, hanging by a “balanco” (Torture lever device), beatings with a stick, beating on the head via weapon until bleeding, and torture with electricity. This torture was accompanied by many insults and threats of handover to the Syrian authorities. “I shall confess whatever you want, I told them under torture. I will confess to anything,” Muhammad said. He confirmed that he was forced to confess out of fear and torture, in addition to being forced to sign papers without knowing its content.

Muhammad was not spared from beatings and torture inside the military court that he was later referred to. Five military personnels attacked him before he was placed in a solitary cell for five days. When he stood before the investigation judge, he insisted to show him the severe beatings he was subjected to, in which their traces were visible on his body. The judge ordered the court clerk to record the scenery but Muhammad cannot confirm whether he did or not.

While in Roumieh prison, many severe rounds of violence were undertaken as he was subjected to many beatings. In the ‘Amanat’ department, personnels gathered around Muhammad and started beating and kicking him. Eventually he was moved to the ‘D building’ but not without being subject to many additional beatings and torture in the dressing room, as he mentions.

The prisoner says that the sergeant there ordered that he’d be placed in ‘Building B’ because he does not bear responsibility for what the prisoner might be exposed to inside ‘Building D’. He also ordered a forensic doctor to examine the bruises on Mohammad’s face. The latter denied knowing what exactly happened to the personnels who attacked him.

After a while, Muhammad was referred to the General Security. The same scenario he experienced during the investigation period was repeated there. He was forced to remain standing on his feet without food for 24 hours and all methods of brutality were practiced against him. Later on, he returned to Roumieh prison to face the tragedy of poor food, overcrowding and racism.

Lebanon’s prisons (19 prisons for men, 4 for women, one for juveniles and one for minor girls) contain more than 8000 prisoners of whom only 20.9 per cent are sentenced meaning that 79.1 percent of prisoners are not sentenced.

According to the Minister of Interior and Municipalities in the caretaker government Bassam Mawlawi, Lebanon’s prisons suffer from three problems; “the first is overcrowding where the rate of prisoners reached 323 per cent of the prison's capacity, in addition to the problem of medication and nutrition.”

The situation gets worse in Roumieh prison which has a capacity of about 1,500 prisoners but currently contains about 3,700 to 4,000 prisoners. The latter is one of the largest prisons in Lebanon. Located in the eastern suburb of Beirut, its construction began in the 1960s and was inaugurated in 1970. 

The prisoners are allocated to 5 buildings: the sentenced building, the juveniles’ building (which includes the disciplinary ‘W Building’), ‘Building D’, ‘Building B’, and the recently constructed ‘Building C’. Over the past years, the prison witnessed several protests by prisoners in order to pressure officials to improve their conditions and speed up trials, up to demanding a general amnesty.

Instead of working to address the cause of these protests - which are injustice and inhumanity - the security forces managed each time to control the situation by referring to violence in more than one occasion. 

Random Arrests and Poor Food

In this regard, Mohamed Sablouh; a human rights lawyer, stated to the author of this report that the difficult situation of prisoners dates back to the period before the October 17^th, 2019 revolution. He noted that around 80 percent of prisoners were receiving their food needs through their families while the rest of the prisoners - which ranges between 20 and 25 per cent - were forced to eat from prison food which Sablouh described as “so bad and sometimes contains insects such as cockroaches.”

Moreover, there are random arrests not compliant with the application of Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding pretrial detention that specifies the detention period for misdemeanors by two months and renewable to become 4 months in total. With the exception of crimes related to terrorism and drugs, the detention period of felonies is 6 months renewable for a similar period of time to become one year.

However, according to Sablouh, the judiciary does not abide by this period. According to him and under the pretext of shortage of judges, many prisoners have been detained without trial for more than 3 years, noting that since 2019, trials have almost stopped due to Covid-19 and later on due to the judges’ strike.

A Prison or a Place to Die

“We are not suffering, we are dying” is a phrase said by one of the prisoners to describe his situation. Sami (a pseudonym) describes the health situation inside the Roumieh prison cellars as dangerous where no medical and health services exist. He says that prisoners must bear all expenses in dollars such as medical prescriptions, x-rays and even surgeries while the prison administration does not incur any of these expenses.

Sami says that prisoners’ treatment is often provided through the building’s ‘Shawish’ (supervisor) called Sheikh Omar al-Atrash who communicates with organizations and people to secure treatment for cases that require hospitalization. Moreover, there is a large spread of skin diseases and fear of cholera due to the nature of the water used by prisoners, according to Sami.

As for the food that is provided to the prisoners, it is in a very bad situation. Since the beginning of the economic crisis, the amount and quality of food provided begun to decrease. A chicken meal was provided to prisoners twice a week but now it has become twice a month, a vegetable or a fruit is divided among two or more prisoners, as Sami says.

Charges are Ready

A Syrian prisoner who has been detained without a trial since 2019 describes how he was subjected to psychological and physical torture during the investigation with him. He pointed that each detainee cannot even remain silent, rather they must invent a story and confess it in order to stop the torture.

Karim is charged with terrorism and is currently in Roumieh prison. He told the author of this report that he was injured in 2012 which caused him a permanent disability in his hands preventing him from even carrying a weapon.

“The families of most of those who were detained were summoned in order to put pressure on the detainees. The charge is always ready which is often terrorism,” Karim says. He continues by describing his own situation by stating that “during 34 months of imprisonment, I was only interrogated once. Sessions in the military court are always postponed under the pretext of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic or the absence of judges or their strike.” 

“Since we are Syrians, no one is defending us.” This is how Karim describes the neglect that Syrians are facing in Roumieh prison. According to him, the biggest problem lies in the procrastination of trials which “burns” the best years of his life and the life of his fellow prisoners.

27% of Prisoners are Syrians

The author of this report contacted the Public Relations Division in the General Directorate of the Internal Security to get responses and clarifications regarding the prisoners’ testimonies. Up until the publication of this report, no responses were received.

After contacting a security source within the prisons, who preferred not to reveal his identity, he confirmed that the rate of overcrowding exceeded 200 per cent in all of Lebanon’s prisons and that the rate of Syrians is 27 per cent of the total number of prisoners nationwide and not only in Roumieh prison.

However, the head of the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim, declared during a press conference of a plan to return the Syrian refugees to their country. He mentioned that “42 per cent of the total number of prisoners in Lebanon are Syrian citizens which puts additional pressure on us.”

The security source pointed out that there is no actual plan to manage the overcrowding of prisons except for the proposal of the Minister of Interior to reduce the prison year to 6 months. The source also referred to the fact that there are cases of unorganized and impermanent torture that often occur during the early stages of investigations in police stations and security centers but not in prison. Additionally, the source confirmed that the economic crisis has affected the quality of food and medical services provided to prisoners by the Internal Security Forces. 

This was confirmed by the prisoners we contacted while serving time. They stated that the economic crisis and the high prices of the prison store forced most of them to eat the prison’s poor food as they cannot afford to buy edibles from the store.

Lawyer Mohamed Sablouh describes the prison situation as “tragic in terms of food and medicine,” which led to the death of 7 people last February. At that time, he called for opening an investigation which was an effort that went in vain, noting that medical negligence has led on several occasions to the death of prisoners. He bluntly holds the successive governments and the judicial authority responsibility of the lives and the well-being of prisoners.

Torture Against All

The ill-treatment such as violence and beatings target the Lebanese and Syrians alike. It is more severe against Syrians due to the absence of anyone that speaks on their behalf. Most imprisoned Syrians are charged with terrorism, “and when a prisoner is from a vulnerable group, it is easy to bully him and try to make him confess by force,” lawyer Sablouh explains.

He said that prisons in Lebanon are not centers for rehabilitation in anyway. A prisoner may enter on charges of a bounced check and leave prison as a drug dealer. This is due to overcrowding, poor care and the absence of a reform plan, in addition to beatings, torture and ill-treatment. According to Sablouh, the solution is that the Ministry of Justice manages prisons with a civilian administration which contributes to solving prison problems and in later stages releasing to society productive prisoners.

Legal Violations

Syrian prisoners that we interviewed confirmed that many of them were arrested in their workplaces without explaining the reason and weren’t allowed to contact a lawyer. Many of them told this report’s author that they have suffered ill-treatment on a racist basis which they sensed during the investigations and the inhumane way of dealing with them because of their Syrian nationality.

According to Amnesty International’s report, the Lebanese authorities have not fulfilled their obligations in respecting the rights of Syrian refugees they arrested and detained on terrorism charges. Noting that international law prohibits arrest, detention or imprisonment without legal basis.

Human rights law also guarantees the right not to be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment or punishment. The authorities are obliged to open investigations on the allegations of torture and civilians cannot be tried in military courts in Lebanon since they cannot offer guarantees of fair trials.

Death of Bashar Abd Al-Saud Under Torture

As far as we remember, Bashar Abd Al-Saud is the latest imprisoned refugees that died under torture or in prison. After contacting his brother Basil, he told us that he and his brother were having dinner together celebrating Basil’s safe arrival from the UAE to Beirut.

They were both happy and exchanging conversations and memories when the State Security agents came to arrest Bashar from his place of residence in Shatila camp and without explaining the reasons.

The next day, the family was asked to come to receive Bashar’s body. There were many accusations against him but it was found that none of them was accurate. Bashar wasn’t a terrorist or an arms dealer. He simply died under torture and not because of a heart attack according to the narrative that some tried to promote. Eventually, the case was closed.

Because the lives of the poor and refugees do not matter, therefore, nothing confirms or reassures that Bashar Abd Al-Saud will be the last victim of torture in the Lebanese prisons’ ‘slaughterhouse’.