After similar deaths .. demands to implement the law against torture in Lebanon

Afif Diab - Beirut

In Lebanon, the demand for the implementation of the Anti-Torture in Prisons Act, adopted by Parliament in 2017, has escalated in Lebanon.

The claims came after the death of a prisoner accused of physical and psychological torture, as well as ongoing investigations into the death of two others as a result of being tortured in mid-July while being held in a prison in the southern suburb of Beirut.

The death of these three men has led to dozens of deaths in Lebanese prisons due to torture since the beginning of 2000.

The Lebanese Parliament, as a result of the intervention of international and national human rights and humanitarian organizations, unanimously approved the Law on the Criminalization of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in September 2017. It was published in the Official Gazette in October of the same year, The government budgeted the National Human Rights Commission and appointed its ten members, after it registered more than one death due to torture.

Confessions forced
Amnesty International said in a statement on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture that it documented eight cases of torture and ill-treatment in Lebanese prisons after the entry into force of the Anti-Torture Act.

The organization confirmed that it had reviewed the medical records, talked with torture victims and their family members, lawyers and institutional activists in anti-torture civil society and members of the UN Committee Against Torture.

In all the cases she documented, the victims of torture testified before the judge that their confessions had been extracted under duress, noting that the judiciary in Lebanon had not opened an investigation into the allegations.

Lawyer Tawfiq al-Deeqa, the father of Hassan al-Dika, who is believed to have died of torture in prison in May, said his son was tortured physically and psychologically, causing his death, explaining to al-Jazeera Net that he filed a complaint about the death of his son and that he is following his file with human rights and humanitarian organizations Calling for the application of the law to criminalize torture in Lebanese prisons immediately and without delay.

Systematic torture
The parliamentary Human Rights Committee discussed the case of the death of Al-Dika and others. Its leader MP Michel Mousa said that there were cases of torture in Lebanese prisons and that "there is no systematic torture." He stressed that the committee "insists on applying the law passed by the parliament against torture."

Moussa called in a press conference to "allocate immediate funding to the National Human Rights Commission and complete its rules of procedure."

Attorney Nizar Saghieh, director of the notepad, says the mechanism for preventing or combating torture in Lebanon is still inoperative.

During the discussion of the file presented by the artist Ziad Itani to torture and extracting false confessions and accusing him of dealing with Israel, Saghieh added that the law on crimes of torture in Lebanon and its mechanisms of prevention "were all disabled."

Serious investigations
Lebanon, which signed the UN Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture in 2008, is required to establish within one year of its ratification an independent body authorized to visit places of detention with a view to preventing torture and other ill-treatment, Amnesty International's Middle East Research Director Lynn Maalouf told Al Jazeera Net.

She added that the Lebanese government should implement the law passed by the House of Representatives against torture, activate the work of the independent national authority, and secure the necessary funds, pointing out that the Lebanese authorities have not yet conducted serious investigations into the charges of torture and forced confessions of prisoners.