Prisoners' Strike in Lebanon Enters Its 28th Day with 72 Critical Health Cases

Approximately 600 prisoners in several Lebanese prisons have entered their twenty-eighth day of a hunger and medication strike, protesting the freezing of the general amnesty law.

A prisoners' spokesperson reported that the number of critical health cases among the strikers had risen to 72 as of Saturday morning.

The spokesperson stated that the worsening health situation of the strikers increases the boiling tension inside the prisons, which have been on a hot tin roof ever since the challenge to the amnesty law weeks ago.

In parallel, the "Lebanese Observatory for Prisoners' Rights" reported that the Roumieh prison administration transferred four inmates from the convicted building last Friday night—identified as "A.Z.," "A.H.," "K.A.," and "A.R."—to Al-Azounieh Hospital for isolation after confirming they were infected with tuberculosis.

The Observatory said that recording infections and transferring those affected to isolation reinforces the fears it previously raised regarding the spread of the disease among prisoners, demanding that relevant authorities declare an urgent health emergency and take effective measures to limit the transmission of infection.

In their daily message, the prisoners held up a banner reading: "After 28 days of striking... Tuberculosis has arrived, but the amnesty has not. Do not pile death and injustice upon us."

Prisoners in buildings "B" and "D" of Roumieh prison, as well as in Jbeil Jenine, Baalbek, and Rashaya prisons, are participating in the strike, demanding the end of the suspension of the general amnesty law.