Police Chief Describes as 'Hoax' Footage of Alleged 'Sectarian Attacks' inside Prisons
The commander of the Gendarmerie on Monday described as “a hoax and and a farce” pictures and videos that have surfaced in recent days, in which supposed inmates trade sectarian threats from the prisons of al-Qobbeh, Baalbek and Roumieh.
Earlier, state-run National News Agency reported that the military judiciary has launched a probe into videos of alleged abuse that are being circulated via WhatsApp, noting that State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr has received the files of the case.
According to MTV, the thing started at the al-Qobbeh prison in Tripoli, when Sunni inmates threatened Shiite and Alawite prisoners. The supposed response then came from other inmates who are being held at the Baalbek and Roumieh prisons.
“A number of inmates and policemen have been interrogated and the Baalbek prison does not contain the backdrops that appeared in the videos and pictures,” Gendarmerie chief Brig. Gen. Elias Saade said at a press conference.
“None of the masks and clothes (that appear in the video) and no cellphones were found at the Baalbek prison … and inmates of all sects enjoy positive relations among each other and they support each other,” Saade added.
He stated that “the issue seems to be a hoax,” noting that no marks of abuse were found on the body of any inmate.
Saade also pointed out that none of the prisoners have complained of abuse by other inmates.
“Investigations are still ongoing and the policemen and inmates might be interrogated again,” Saade added, dismissing the videos and pictures as a “farce.”
Turning to the al-Qobbeh prison, the police chief said “the pictures and the video are real but the issue happened five months ago.”
“Those who carried out the act all belong to the same sect and it turned out that they had agreed to capture the video so that one of the dangerous inmates could blackmail the brother of one of the prisoners who appears in the footage,” Saade said.
“There was no real violence or harm and the issue was a total hoax and no inmates were threatened,” he added.
As for the Roumieh prison, Saade said security forces focused their investigations on the tattoo and the voice that appear in one of the videos, noting that the tattoo was not found on the arm of any of the Islamist prisoners.
“Investigators determined that the voice in the video is not the voice of one of the suspected inmates,” he revealed.
“The backdrop in the picture does not match any of the rooms in Bloc B and it is impossible that the incident could have happened at the juvenile or convict wards,” Saade added.
“Investigations are still underway but we confirm that there are no threats at the three prisons,” he went on to say.
over 10 years
cant believe i just gave thumbs up to an M8 criminal.
over 10 years
I did read i, and my opinion remains the same.
over 10 years
and whats your opinion? do you have to ask your boss what to write or can you state your opinion
over 10 years
It looks staged, but anything can happen in Prison.
over 10 years
That first photo is what Slipknot look like without their masks.
over 10 years
"...Inmates of all sects enjoy positive relations among each other and they support each other." If that is indeed true, then those criminals behind bars remain more honourable than "the most honourable of people" who start inciting sectarian strife in order to mass-murder participants in a popular protest in a foreign country, all the way till that protest becomes a full-blown civil war. Lebanese people know the history of their own country enough to neither incite new religious strife or to put their country in danger at the behest of a foreign power.
over 10 years
"When videos of Hezbollah killing un-armed prisoners appeared - "
total BS. show me these videos anonyme.
over 10 years
if it's the video where men with yellow ribbons are executing prisoners (i saw that video and some naive people jumped to accusing hezbollah), then look at this:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2c4_1384744814
This is totally normal, that sects or races attacks each other in jails. Races in US. Prisons do the same, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. Don't be suprised when criminals do, what they do best.