facility:roumieh prison

Women In ISIS: Prison Study Reveals Face Of Female Jihadists
▻https://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/women-in-isis-prison-study-reveals-face-of-female-jihadists

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“BEIRUT – Few women have ever gained access to Block B of Beirut’s notorious Roumieh prison. This is where Lebanon holds radicalized criminals. It is also a place where suicide bombings have allegedly been planned, and has been called an “operations room” for the so-called Islamic State by Lebanon’s interior minister. So when Maya and Nancy Yamout first began interviewing convicted jihadists in the prison, the Lebanese sisters aroused both confusion and suspicion among guards and prisoners alike.

The Yamouts’ interest began with a university project, but it took the support of the former minister of justice to get them inside Roumieh. It was unheard-of for two young women, even professionals, to attempt such a project. The sisters are forensic social workers, which means they tackle issues relating to law and legal systems, such as recommendations about mental status, child custody or neglect.

“It was strange for ISF [Internal Security Forces] to see us in prison … [we] were asked, ‘Why do you want to do this? Go pick another topic,’” Maya says. Even the ISF guards who helped them showed no interest in their interviews.

Seven years on, after a Master’s thesis about The Role of Forensic Social Work in Terrorism and its impact on society, the pair have become prison regulars. Apart from lawyers and family members, the sisters are the only civilians the Block B prisoners meet. They regularly interview more than 70 inmates – about 10% of the block’s total population – from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Russia and Sudan. Roughly half are said to have been de-radicalized, and are finishing their prison time. Prisons are key recruiting centers for radicalization, putting Maya and Nancy into a potential cauldron of violent extremism.”

Hezbollah and Salafists: A Return to Dialogue | Al Akhbar English
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hezbollah-and-salafists-return-dialogue

Chahal says that two parties objected to the previous MoU: the Future Movement and his relative Sheikh Dai al-Islam Chahal, the founder of the Salafi movement in Lebanon, who currently lives outside Lebanon. He noted that “the first party is today sitting on the same table with Hezbollah and negotiating with it, and the second wishes to hold dialogue with the party.”
He said that the Salafis, specifically the families of the Islamist prisoners held in Roumieh prison, acknowledge “the need for us to hold talks with [Hezbollah], in order to resolve the prisoners issue and end the Sunni-Shiite conflict, which has become a threat to the country.”

A Who’s Who: The Kingpins of the “Islamist Floor” in Roumieh Prison
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/who%E2%80%99s-who-kingpins-islamist-floor%E2%80%9D-roumieh-prison

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Members of the Internal Security Forces monitor the situation in Roumieh prison on January 12, 2015 as security forces aim to dismantle Islamist cells inside the infamous prison. Al-Akhbar/Haitham Moussawi Members of the Internal Security Forces monitor the situation in Roumieh prison on January 12, 2015 as security forces aim to dismantle Islamist cells inside the infamous prison. Al-Akhbar/Haitham Moussawi

In light of the Internal Security Forces’ raid on Roumieh prison on Monday, which authorities say was aimed at finding those responsible for two suicide bombing that struck #Tripoli’s Jabal Mohsen neighborhood on Saturday, Al-Akhbar has complied a basic profile of the main influential leaders of various Islamist (...)

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Police raid Lebanon’s Roumieh Prison in crackdown on Islamists
►http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Jan-12/283785-isf-elite-unit-carries-out-operation-inside-roumieh-prisons-isl

An elite force from the Internal Security Forces launched an operation against Islamist prisoners inside the notorious Roumieh Prison, a security source told The Daily Star Monday.

In comments to a local TV station, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said a security plan inside the detention facility’s bloc B - known to house a concentration of high-profile Islamist detainees - had begun.

Machnouk told Al-Jadeed that the crackdown came in the aftermath of information that some of the prisoners were connected to the weekend’s twin suicide attacks that targeted a cafe in Tripoli’s majority Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen. The suicide bombings killed at least 9 and wounded more than 30.

Report: Islamists Seeking to Exchange Captive Security Personnel with Roumieh Inmates
▻http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/142372-report-islamists-seeking-to-exchange-captive-security-personnel-wit

The fate of at least 35 soldiers and policemen, who were held captive by Islamist gunmen in the northeastern border town of Arsal, remains unknown after contacts were lost with them.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Friday, armed men who retreated to Syria from the northeastern border town of Arsal after intensified clashes with the Lebanese army have taken hostage more than 35 soldiers and policemen in an attempt to exchange them for Islamist prisoners, who are held at Roumieh prison’s Bloc B.

On Thursday, a delegation from the Muslim Scholars Committee tasked with mediating with jihadist gunmen in Arsal announced that it has lost contact with militants who have taken army and Internal Security Forces personnel captive.

But al-Nusra Front announced later that the soldiers and policemen who are still in captivity have a “special status that will be revealed later.”

Officials: Conversations Intercepted between Arsal Militants, Tripoli Islamists and Roumieh Inmates
▻http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/142223-officials-conversations-intercepted-between-arsal-militants-tripoli

Lebanese authorities have intercepted telephone conversations between the leaders of militants who captured Arsal, a town in northeastern Lebanon, over the weekend and inmates at Roumieh prison, security officials said.

The officials, who were not identified, told As Safir daily published on Thursday that the phone calls also involved some Islamists in the northern city of Tripoli and the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon.

Ain el-Hilweh is known to harbor extremists while many Islamists are held imprisoned in Roumieh.

The officials identified two suspects with their initials as R.M. and A.M., saying they ran some operations in Arsal and Tripoli.

Lebanese riot police fire tear gas at prisoners
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanese-riot-police-fire-tear-gas-prisoners

Security forces fired tear gas at inmates inside #Lebanon's notorious #Roumieh prison Tuesday after the prisoners demonstrated against an attempt to move three of them, a local TV station reported. An untold number of inmates suffered from tear gas inhalation, as authorities are attempting to calm the situation, Lebanon’s MTV News channel said. Images posted to Twitter allegedly show smoke rising from the prison after clashes erupted between prisoners and police. It was unclear what was burning. read more

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The Panopticon: A peek into Lebanese prisons
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/panopticon-peek-lebanese-prisons

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People wait outside #Lebanon largest prison, #Roumieh_Prison. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi) People wait outside Lebanon largest prison, Roumieh prison. (Photo: Haitham Moussawi)

Lebanese prisons, like all prisons, reflect the society that lies outside the barbed-wire gates. Within these prisons, the state is non-existent, the inmates are in control, and power lies in the hands of a few.

Yazan al-Saadi

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BREAKING : Lebanese minister survives « assassination attempt »
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/breaking-lebanese-minister-survives-assassination-attempt

Lebanese Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami has survived what he called “an assassination attempt” Friday afternoon, after Islamist protesters fired at his convoy in Tripoli, injuring four members of the minister’s entourage.

Karami’s motorcade was driving through the Azmi neighborhood, better known as “Allah square,” where a group of demonstrators shut roads demanding amnesty for a group of Islamists being held in Roumieh prison.