The Lebanese army announced the death of a number of detainees after one week of security operations carried out by its units in the Syrian refugee camps of Arsal on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

Lebanese Minister of Human Rights called on the army and the judiciary to open an investigation into the killing of Syrian detainees, Al Arabiya reported.

According to Al Arabiya report, the Lebanese army said that four of the detainees were suffering from health problems related to harsh climate and that the rest of the detainees went through medical examination.

Lebanese activists, however, denied the statement made by the Lebanese army related to the deaths. They said that the number of people arrested had reached 10 and that all of them died as a result of torture in Lebanese army prisons.

The bodies of eight detainees were handed over while some of them were buried under pressure from the army without even pictures of the corpuses being taken. The marks of torture appeared on the bodies of the dead detainees, activists said.

Lawyers of the detainees’ demanded that their families will not receive bodies until they are legally examined. Security forces reportedly prevented presence of officials who assign lawyers to do the needful. The remaining bodies would be subsequently handed over.

Signs of torture

According to the report, activists released photos showing seven detainees dead. Their names were given as Mustafa Abdel Karim Abasa from Qara village in Qalamoun al-Gharbi, Khaled Hussein al-Mulais from Qara, Anas Hussein al-Husseiki from Qusair.

Three bodies had clearly visible signs of torture. Other bodies were of Safwan al-Issa, who was killed with his brother Marwan, a handicapped man named Radwan. The third body was unidentified.

According to human rights reports, around 5,000 Syrians are under detention in Lebanon with Hezbollah militias, Lebanese military intelligence and the Lebanese army. They are being held in secret as well as public prisons.

The public prison of Roumieh includes 400 Syrian detainees, while many of the dissident officers from the Assad regime and refugees in Lebanon have been handed over to the regime in opposition to the international humanitarian law.

They were also subjected to torture and abductions by the Syrian intelligence, Hezbollah and Lebanese intelligence; among those are dissident officer Jasser al-Mahamid and a dissident officer belonging to al-Antawies.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:54 - GMT 06:54