Tripoli protesters urge release of Nahr al-Bared Islamists

Tripoli demonstrators who support the Syrian uprising have added a new demand to their weekly protests – the release of Islamist inmates in Lebanon who have been in state custody for nearly five years. The men were arrested during and after the summer 2007 clashes between the Lebanese Army and the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Protesters object to the fact that some of the prisoners have not yet been to trial, and say the cases of others are proceeding slowly. Opposition to the Islamists’ detention has gained steam since Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, convicted of contacting Israel, was released early last week after benefiting from a new sentence reduction law. In a weekly march in support of the Syrian uprising in Tripoli’s Qibbeh neighborhood, support for the detainees was evident. The protest began at Hamza Mosque after prayers. Delivering Friday’s sermon at the mosque, Sheikh Zakaria Masri expressed surprise that some Islamist detainees have been in custody without charge or trial for five years, while Karam was released after serving what the sheikh called a short sentence for collaborating with Israel. “How is someone who has collaborated with Israel and put the state in danger released after one and a half years, while the state continues to hold a group of Muslim young people in prison without trial?” he asked. Karam, a senior official in Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, was freed after serving 18 months. Masri said that some of the detainees had yet to have charges filed against them, asking “where is justice in this [kind of] treatment?” Worshipers walked in the streets of Qibbeh, carrying banners bearing slogans supporting Syria’s uprising and chanting against Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad and his brutal crackdown on protesters, urging him to step down. Among the protesters were Syrian refugees who are residing in Tripoli and the surrounding areas. The march ended at Ibn Sina Square. Masri said he was optimistic that the collapse of Assad’s regime was imminent. He said the Syrian authorities had committed acts of torture and persecution against its own people, in the belief this would keep it in power. “But reality is becoming clear to local and international opinion and the regime’s hatred and criminality is being revealed,” he said. Another group of protesters demanding the release of Islamist detainees marched from Amira Mosque in Bab al-Raml after Friday prayers to Tripoli’s Justice Palace. They called for the release of the mosque’s imam Sheikh Tarek Merhi, arrested in connection with the Nahr al-Bared conflict, as well as for speeding up the trials of other Islamists. Marchers also slammed Israeli collaborators. For the second Friday in a row, residents of the nearby area of Beddawi blocked both lanes of the highway that links the town to Akkar and Tripoli, objecting to trial delays. Hundreds of protesters, including a representative of Beddawi’s mayor, members of the municipal council, and mukhtars held banners bearing slogans condemning what they called the double standards of the state and judiciary. Speaking on behalf of the detainees’ relatives, Sheikh Sami Hajj promised escalation if demands were not met. “We demand that our people from the Seif family and all other innocent detainees who are called ‘the Islamist detainees’ be released,” he said. “Until this demand is met, we will continue to block the road and hold a sit-in every week and we will escalate our actions,” he said, adding that protesters refused to accept double standards in sentencing. Tents were erected on the side of the highway, apparently in preparation for a long term sit-in.