Berri Urges Law Enforcement on Roumieh Torture Suspects, Rioters

Speaker Nabih Berri has called for the punishment of the Roumieh prison guards and their backers for torturing Islamist inmates and stressed that the law should also be enforced on rioters.

“Such practices are totally rejected,” Berri told officials who visited him in Ain el-Tineh on Tuesday. “If they take place in some countries, then Lebanon should not follow suit.”

“The interior minister is doing the right thing,” the speaker said, calling for “the implementation of all necessary legal measures” against the five guards, who were charged on Tuesday.

“The investigation into this case should take all the needed time and the culprits and those standing behind them should be punished,” he said.

Berri's remarks, which were published in several local dailies on Wednesday, came after Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi accused the speaker's ally Hizbullah of leaking the video showing the guards beating the Islamist prisoners.

“Why the video, which was recorded in April, was released now?” he wondered. “Such an act has a purpose.”

The dailies said that Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq telephoned Berri on Tuesday over a riot that erupted at Roumieh Prison's Block A.

“Today is the turn of the Shiites,” al-Mashnouq told him sarcastically after the riot was allegedly caused by some Shiite prisoners.

But Berri replied: “Enforce the law on everyone."

He stressed that there was no difference between one inmate and another and warned against sectarianism in Lebanese prisons.

“All of them belong to Roumieh prison, whether they are convicted or accused, no matter to what sect they belong too,” the speaker reportedly said.

G.K.

D.A.