Lebanese Interior Ministry admits tortures, pledges action

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi Beirut – George Shahin Lebanese Ministry of Interior admitted the “existence of torture in investigation rooms and detention centres in Lebanon,” stating that all are responsible, including “the arrested victim, law enforcement elements, and elements in charge of detainees affairs.”
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi stated that there are some “armed parties which take initiatives in disciplining and arrests, resorting to torture and degrading ill-treatments.” He added that these parties cooperate with security forces to hand over “kidnapped” individuals to the police, without arrest warrants from the law enforcement.
The news was released during an anti-torture conference held by the non-profit organisation ‘Justice and Mercy’, funded by EU, at the lawyers’ syndicate, aiming to put an end to torture and to rehabilitate victims who were subjected to ill-treatment or torture in detention and temporary arrests.
The conference was attended by Interior Ministry representative Charbel Matar, MP Samir Al-Jaser, EU delegation member in Lebanon Elsa Vineet, Middle East Representative of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Fateh Azzam, and a crowd of diplomatic and security figures in Lebanon, in addition to judges, lawyers, and representatives from international organisations and civil foundations.
Qortbawi said Lebanon has not implemented the international agreement it signed to prevent torture, but it is working to criminalize and punish torture.
“It is true that Lebanon signed the [United Nations] Convention against Torture in 2000 and joined the Optional Protocol against Torture in 2008, but honestly the agreement has not been practically implemented,” Qortbawi said this week at the meeting.  
The UN protocol mandates that states prevent torture at home and not transport people anywhere abroad where there is reason to believe they will be tortured.
The optional protocol deals with the monitoring of detention sights.
Qortbawi said Lebanon was preparing the progress reports, now overdue, that the protocols require it to send to the UN.
“The Justice Ministry will not hesitate to carry out its role in criminalising torture and punishing its perpetrators,” he said, adding that addressing torture “does not contradict with fighting crime, especially since any investigation under physical or emotional pressure can be nullified.”
He said fighting torture also requires decent living conditions. “This requires modern prisons, detention centres and investigation rooms – which will require a large budget.”
Fateh Azzam said that, despite Lebanon’s signatures on the UN protocols, “There is a great need to make sure that the protocols are being implemented in reality.”
Qortbawi, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil have all toured Lebanon’s largest prison, Roumieh, recently. Late last month Charbel called the condition of prisons in Lebanon “no longer bearable,” and referred to the health of inmates as a “miserable situation.”
Charbel Mater, Interior Ministry’s representative at the conference, said that torture does take place in investigation rooms and detention centres.
“Everyone is responsible” for torture, he said, adding that this includes employees at places where investigations take place, as well as “lawyers who intervene to pressure a detainee and judges who exercise pressure on police investigators to hurry up or get a confession and turn a blind eye to a detainee in a miserable health situation that has resulted from beating or torture.”
He said the ministry “will be strict to the maximum with everyone who is proven to have been involved in ill treatment, and they will be prosecuted.”
Torture is widespread in the country, according to a report issued in December by Alef-Act for Human Rights on Lebanon’s progress towards upholding international conventions.
Lebanese Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi left to Cairo on Wednesday morning to attend the Arab Justice Ministers meeting which is scheduled to take place in the Egyptian capital.