Roman prison court is not an ideal solution … and the objections are ongoing

Iskandar Khashashu wrote in “Al -Nahar”: Justice Minister Adel Nassar and Al -Dhahriya, Ahmed Al -Hajjar, announced the reactivation of work in the court in the Roman Central Prison.

According to the two ministers, the primary challenge is overcrowding in prisons on all Lebanese lands, which is a subject in treatment, and there is a work on all levels to accelerate the trials and to decide the files of the detainees as quickly as possible, and improve health care for them, in coordination with the Minister of Justice and the unions of lawyers, judges and internal security forces.

The courtroom was prepared in Roumieh prison with international specifications, at a cost of two and a half million US dollars.

Its area is about 250 square meters, and includes 12 accusations distributed on three layers (four in each layer), the area of ​​each cage of 12 square meters, and can accommodate ten people, and is equipped with a monitoring system, soundcolor, microphone, bulletproof glass and soundproofing. And the maximum distance from the arc of the court A cage more than 20 meters, which means that judges are forced to use cameras and microphones to communicate with some detainees.

Sessions were held in the court in 2012 that did not exceed the fingers of one hand, and in 2013 the Judicial Council inaugurated the trial hall at a session to try the detainees in the Nahr al -Bared file. The session was devoted to considering two files after the basic file was divided into a set of files.

The two files include 53 accused, and the first is devoted to trial accused of criminal forgery, while the second, which includes 45 accused, is allocated to the crimes of state security, terrorist acts, killing, and an attempt to kill, before the work stopped.

In June 2020, the “Prisons Health Care Committee” announced the return of the trial sessions in the trial hall in Romans, but the trials soon stopped working after many complaints from lawyers during the era of the former Bar Association, Nader Kasbar, as a result of obstacles that the lawyers faced during their work.

Although the Minister of Justice affirms coordination with the Bar Association and that the desire is for everyone to be the right to defense and the independence of the judiciary and the lawyers reserved in the court, the lawyers’ objections are still in place.

According to Kasbar, to transfer the files from the Baabda court pen to the Roman court of many risks, “The writer must carry dozens of files and transfer them to his car, and then to Rome. What if you lost papers or documents from the files during the transportation?

In his opinion, “The lawyer who has a file in Baabda and intends to attend the session, may perform dozens of reviews, and in his ability to attend other sessions in the court, whether before the investigating judge or before the individual judges or the Court of Appeal, and there are logistical problems related to the introduction of the lawyer’s phone, the many and accurate inspections that the lawyers are exposed to, and the absence of positions, even the trial environment that must be far from prison The accused feels comfortable, but in prison he is under pressure. ”

It is noteworthy that the capacity of a Romans prison amounts to 1050 prisoners, and it currently includes 3476 prisoners, which means that the overcrowding rate exceeds 324 percent. Roumieh Central Prison, which is the largest Lebanese prisons, consists of 6 buildings: “B” building, and “D” building for the ruled, and each of them consists of 3 layers, the events building, the central IUD, the privacy building, and the precautionary building, knowing that 40 percent of the prisoners in Lebanon are non -Lebanese.