This section holds prisoners arrested and convicted on "terrorism" charges; most of them are of Syrian, Tunisian, Algerian, Saudi, or Palestinian nationalities, as well as some Lebanese prisoners.

Sources indicate that these prisoners have been exposed to extremely bad conditions for nearly a year, under the pretext that the prison administration is punishing them for a prisoner escape on 18 August 2009 - despite the fact that Lebanese prison administrative law does not allow such a long term for this type of punishment. Furthermore, only seven people tried to escape; however there are nearly 30 people currently being punished.

E Block is situated on the first floor of the Juvenile Building. It is separated from the rest of the prison cells in the building, which include not only juveniles but also people of various ages - contrary to international standards which stipulate that juvenile prisoners must be held separately.

This section consists of 11 rooms with an average size of about 3 m x 3 m each, among which more than 30 prisoners are distributed. Four of these rooms receive no sunlight at all, and as a result no direct natural ventilation from outside the cell.

The prisoners are banned from socialising and are only allowed to go out into the exercise yard for three hours a week, divided between three days. The section has a putrid smell due to humidity and because the sunlight does not reach most places, and due to the absence of natural ventilation. This has caused the prisoners to become ill over the past few months, as has the fact that the prisoners are confined to these cells and banned from leaving them, even to go to the corridors or to other cells, except at narrowly specified times - which also naturally leads to the spread of other illnesses resulting from the lack of exercise.

Alkarama has observed that these prisoners are banned from keeping basic electrical equipment in their cells; even mattresses are banned, forcing them to sleep directly on the ground. The conditions of detention in the first six months were worse, to the point that sunlight reached none of the cells.

For this reason, Alkarama calls upon the prison authorities to move the prisoners detained in E Block to locations with suitable conditions, and guarantee that prison detention conditions conform to the standards enacted by the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention Or Imprisonment, adopted by the General Assembly resolution 43/173 in December 1988.

Alkarama also takes the opportunity again to call upon the Lebanese government to set up an independent system for monitoring and visiting all places of detention, in accordance with the requirements of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, ratified by Lebanon in December 2009.

It should be noted that Lebanese prisons are still suffering from many problems, chief among them a shortage of space, leading to overcrowding and a lack of specialised administration for its prisons. The Lebanese government has started since 2008 to implement a five-year plan ending 2012 intended to move prison administration from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice, in accordance with generally accepted standards.