Berri Criticizes Judicial System over Delayed Trials for Inmates

Speaker Nabih Berri criticized on Wednesday the reluctance of judiciary to try a large number of prisoners detained at Roumieh prison.

He told An Nahar daily that the tour of Heath Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel to Roumieh prison revealed a “chronic negligence.”

“We can no longer remain silent,” he said.

Berri’s visitors quoted him as saying that 50 percent of the inmates in Roumieh haven’t been tried yet.

They told al-Joumhouria newspaper that there’s no excuse for the judges and the judicial body not to look after their work especially after their salaries were doubled.

In 2011, Roumieh prison witnessed several security incidents, including attempted escapes, riots and hunger strikes by prisoners.