Protesters demand release of jailed Islamists in Beirut

Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Beirut Friday to demand the release of Islamist prisoners. Following the release earlier this month of senior Free Patriotic Movement official Fayez Karam, who served a relatively short sentence of 20 months for contact with Israel, protesters have been staging regular demonstrations demanding the release of Islamists jailed without charge. Until now, the protests have been taking place in Tripoli, but this Friday around 300 demonstrators took to the streets of downtown Beirut to voice their demands. “We’re here for the Islamic prisoners to give them freedom,” said Abdel-Salam Karameh, who like many others had traveled from Tripoli to protest. “In Lebanon, we have Fayez Karam, and the government gave him [under] two years. He [had contact] with the Israelis. We have Islamic prisoners, and there’s no justice for them,” he told The Daily Star as he stood among a crowd of protesters shouting slogans calling for freedom for imprisoned Islamists. Karam was sentenced to two years in jail but benefited from new legislation that reduces the prison year from 12 to nine months, allowing him to be released after 20 months behind bars. Demonstrators complained bitterly that while Karam received a swift trial and sentencing and subsequently benefited from the new law, many Islamists have been held without charge for five years. Dozens of Islamists were detained following the three-month battle between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in 2007. Many have yet to be charged or face trial. Addressing the crowd, Nabil Rahim, a spokesman for the demonstrators, said that they were with neither the March 8 nor the March 14 coalitions. “Our goals are humanitarian and ethical,” he said. Nabil Halabi, an activist who also addressed the demonstrators, called on the government to take action, specifically for those detainees who are innocent and being held without trial. Firebrand Sheikh Ahmad Assir, a well-known Salafist from Sidon, attended the demonstration but did not speak.