In 2022 in Lebanese prisons are 34 people died. The deaths had been 14 in 2015 and 18 in 2018, the year before the beginning of the economic crisis that still grips the country. The data are official, provided by the Ministry of the Interior. However, no explanation is given for the reasons for these deaths.
Amnesty International conducted an investigation which connects, in a worrying way, the increase in prisoner deaths to the economic crisis.
However, the crisis can in no way make it justifiable the sacrifice of the right to health of prisonersthe denial of medical treatment to prisoners, the imposition of hospitalization costs on their family members and the lack of specialized medical personnel within prisons.
Moreover, in at least three cases very specific responsibilities have emerged.
One is to Khalil Taleb, who died in Roumieh prison on August 21, 2022, where he had arrived already battered on the first day of detention. His family had taken charge of medical care but the prison doctor denied he was ill and management delayed his hospitalization.
Overcrowding in Lebanese prisons is 323 percent e 80 percent of inmates are held awaiting trial. The real value of the interior ministry’s budget to provide medical care for detainees fell from nearly $7 billion in 2019 to $628 million last year.
The government is no longer able to pay for the hospitalization of prisoners. It also happens that, in violation of the law, hospitals also present the bill for emergency medical treatment. The result is that, if 846 detainees had been hospitalized in 2018, in 2022 the number dropped to 107.
Amnesty International has urged the Beirut authorities to take immediate action, such as decongest prisons avoiding the massive use of pre-trial detention and resorting to alternative measures and increasing the resources available for ensure adequate medical care for detainees and their immediate access to emergency services.
The Ministries of Home Affairs and Health responded to Amnesty International’s requests for information and their responses were included in the final report.