When Mrs Badria Abu Meri was arrested in May 2010, media reported that she had been taken into custody for her own protection although she was in fact summoned on alleged implication in a crime. Years later, she remains in Baabda prison – after being tortured and held without sentence for over 32 months. In November 2012, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found her deprivation of liberty to be arbitrary in its Opinion 44/2012 based on
information submitted by Alkarama earlier in the year and recommends that she be released immediately.
On 22 May 2010, Mrs Badria Abu Meri was asked to appear at Baabda Court House, south-west of Beirut, for questioning regarding her alleged implication in a murder. She was beaten and humiliated during her interrogation and still carries marks of this treatment. A day later, she reported to the General Prosecutor that she had been tortured, but to Alkarama's knowledge, no steps have been taken by the Lebanese authorities to effectively investigate these allegations. We recall that Lebanon is a party to the Convention against Torture and therefore obliged to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture and to ensure that the competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed.
After her appearance before the General Prosecutor, Mrs Abu Meri was brought to Baabda Women's Prison close to the Court House, a prison originally conceived to accommodate 36 criminal offenders. The detention centre now holds up to one hundred detainees, meaning that many of them have to sleep on the floor. This again constitutes a violation of Lebanon's obligations under international law, namely Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which sets forth that all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.
Most importantly, Mrs Abu Meri's case was still not examined by a competent court and to this day she has not been sentenced, close to three years after her arrest. In addition, she was not able to formally mandate a lawyer for her defence. Her right to a fair trial within a reasonable timeframe has therefore clearly not been respected, as should have been the case pursuant to Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In light of the facts described above and in the absence of a contestation of these same facts by the Lebanese Government, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention noted a transgression of Mrs Abu Meri's rights to the extent that her ongoing detention is arbitrary. Recommending her immediate release, the experts also consider her to be entitled to adequate reparations for the violations she suffered at the hands of the Lebanese authorities. Alkarama urges the Lebanese authorities to undertake all necessary steps to immediately implement the Working Group's recommendations.
Unfortunately, Mrs Abu Meri is by no means an isolated case. Many other women detained in Baabda Women's Prison and, according to a recent study by a Lebanese NGO, about two third of detainees in Lebanon are detained without sentence and in certain detention facilities, one third of the inmates indicate to have been tortured. Alkarama calls on the Lebanese authorities to undertake all steps necessary to remedy this situation and ensure that the Lebanese judiciary's functioning allows for trials in accordance with international norms and standards.
For more information or an interview, please contact media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).
