The people listed below were arrested in March-April 2006 and were victims of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. They have been prosecuted before the military court in Beirut despite the fact that they do not qualify as military and the offences for which they were charged do not constitute a military offense. The following verdict was delivered on September 04, 2008:
1-Ghassan Sulayman al SULAIBY five years hard labor
2-Mohamed Ghassan AL SULAIBY, sentence covered by the period of detention
3-Ibrahim Sulayman al SULAIBY three years hard labor
4-Eddine Siradj Mounir three years hard labor
5-AL SULAIBY Sulayman, 10 days' imprisonment.
6-Youcef Mounir KOUBROUSLY three years hard labor
7-Safy Ibrahim AL ARAB, sentence covered by the period of detention
8-Issam Ahmed Rachid, three years of hard labor
9-Ali Amini KHALED three years hard labor
All these men were arrested without judicial warrant and without being notified of the offence for which they were sued. Members of the Military Intelligence, most of them wearing civilian clothes, took them to the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Beirut where they were held incommunicado and tortured for a period of fifteen days before being transferred to the Rumieh civil prison.
They have not been presented before a military magistrate until 15 December 2006 where they were charged with attempting "to constitute an armed group to commit terrorist acts" and "to undermine the security of state ".
They were deprived of medical care in the Rumieh prison despite the injuries and the torture they had suffered and their state of physical and moral decay after weeks of abuse.
The judge who heard the defendants and who personally noticed sequelae of the torture they suffered refused however to take any measure or to investigate into the torture and ill-treatment the detainees were subjected to. The judge refused to provide any protection to them in prison, and, worse, torture remained a common practice against them.
The judge had also refused to comply with the request to appoint a medical expert to examine the detainees and see the torture to which they had suffered on the ground "that it was the prisoner's duty to bring the evidence of torture they claim to have suffered."
During the trial, lawyers have raised, in vain, the incompetence of the military court to hear the case by demonstrating the apparent contradictions between surveys conducted by the Ministry of Defense and the magistrate.
In its ruling, the Permanent Military Tribunal in Beirut does not take into account the initial charges which were the very basis of bringing the case before the military justice.
According to lawyers, the convictions were based solely on confessions in the trial records established during the preliminary investigation. The court refused to hear witnesses.
The military court had indeed categorically refused to consider allegations of torture of defendants or their lawyers who have not failed in their pleadings to formally raise the invalidity of the preliminary investigation because of the use of abusive coercion. Their plea was however ignored by the military court.
The condemnation of these people is a flagrant violation of article 15 of the Convention against Torture ratified by Lebanon. This section provides that any statement which is established to have been obtained by torture can not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings.