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News > Lebanon

Lebanese Army Denies Torturing Detained Protesters Despite Reports

  • MENA Prison Forum published drawings on Twitter to illustrate the torture the detainees are alleged to have endured.

    MENA Prison Forum published drawings on Twitter to illustrate the torture the detainees are alleged to have endured. | Photo: Twitter (@MENAPrisonForum)

Published 4 May 2020
Opinion

"They were scared, terrified, and had been beaten," the protesters' lawyer said. "They told me about all the torture they had undergone. Two said they had been electrocuted."

Lebanon’s army denied the military used torture or degrading treatments on detainees who said they were beaten and electrocuted after being arrested during riots last week, Al Jazeera reported Monday.

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According to their lawyer, Lama al-Amin, the seven detainees were accused of participating in riots and attacking soldiers.

Al-Amin is a member of the Committee for the Defense of Protesters, an organization formed following the popular uprising against Lebanon's political elite in October 2019.

Working with the Beirut Bar Association, al-Amin could get access to the detainees Saturday at the local army intelligence headquarters.

"They were scared, terrified, and had been beaten," she said. "They told me about all the torture they had undergone. Two said they had been electrocuted."

The lawyer's statements were corroborated by medical examinations conducted this weekend after six of the detainees were released and rushed to the hospital for treatment. 

Reports on two of them showed that one was repeatedly vomiting and had pain in his head and both legs while the other had bruises on his back and pain in his right shoulder and both legs, in addition to swelling on the soles of both of his feet.

The Army Intelligence made the arrests last week in the southern port city of Sidon after protesters took to the streets nationwide over the monumental depreciation of the local currency amid a collapsing economy.

The Lebanese army said an investigation had found that no torture occurred.

"If they have any complaints to put forward, they have the right to do that here. Our doors are open," it said.

The government commissioner to the military court, Judge Peter Germanos, has asked the investigative branch of army intelligence to carry out an investigation into the allegations of torture, and asked to be informed of the results.

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