19 detainees managed to escape the glasses of Ghazir police station, in the Keserwan district, in Mount Lebanon, after they caused a gap in the wall, after which the security forces would return, and they are able to arrest one of them, while the search is still ongoing for others.
Security sources told Asharq Al -Awsat that the detainees have opened the gap under the small window at the top of the ceiling so that 19 detainees were able to escape, who are 13 Syrians, 4 Lebanese and one Egyptian, noting that one of the Lebanese was arrested, while the security forces in the region complete the search process to follow the path that the fugitive followed.
While the internal investigations in the escape began, the information indicated the delay in the discovery of the escape about an hour and a half, which allowed the fugitives a long distance from the location of the police station, which could be difficult to pursue them within a short time.
A video clip spread on social media, showing an aspect of the police station, where the detainees fled, and heard the voice of a person, as he reassured them (the fugitives) that they would not appear in the video.
The escape and similar operations recorded in earlier times are inseparable from the crisis of overcrowding of prisons in Lebanon and the slowdown in the trials that lead to the prolongation of the arrest period in the stations before the detainees were transferred to prisons, in addition to the number of elements of the few security forces in the stations as a result of the shortage in many, which led to the ease of escaping from the heavy police station, according to informed sources.
The sources indicate that there are dozens of detainees in this police station, which usually does not accommodate more than 30 people, while it is managed and guarded by a few elements, may not exceed the fingers of one hand.
In a step to alleviate the overcrowding crisis in prisons and accelerate the trials, he had taken a decision in Lebanon weeks ago, to transfer the trial sessions to Roman prison (the largest prisons in Lebanon) and to determine the number of sessions that will be held every week, with the aim of lifting the injustice from hundreds of detainees who spent many years without trial, and the depreciation of the explosion expected inside it, due to the anger experienced by hundreds Prisoners and their families, due to the delay in their trials and their impossibility to transfer them from the prison headquarters to the failure of justice, due to the lack of cars designated for transporting them and the lack of security protection during their transfer to the courts.
Last week, the Ministry of Justice announced in a statement, “the start of the first trial sessions in the hall allocated inside the prison,” noting that “20 sessions were held in one day, and the trial was concluded in 7 files of it, and I was postponed to understand the ruling, in a practical step that contributes to reducing overcrowding and facilitating the course of justice.”
