On 6 December 2016, Muawiya Harba and Sultan Harba, two Syrians from the same family living in refugee camps in the border city of Arsal, east Lebanon, will have their next trial session before the Military Court in Beirut. They are facing terrorism charges based solely on information extracted under torture during their secret detention at the premises of the Ministry of Defence in Yarzeh, Baabda.
On 19 October 2016, the Lebanese Parliament approved a law creating an independent National Commission for Human Rights, Lebanon's National Human Rights Institution (NHRI), which includes a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), an independent body mandated to improve the conditions of those deprived of liberty by visiting places of detention. The law, that followed several recommendations issued by UN human rights mechanisms in that regard, finally provides Lebanon with two essential independent bodies supposed to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights.
On 25 October 2016, Walid Diab, a 18-year-old Lebanese citizen from Tripoli, was released from the juvenile section of Roumieh prison where he was detained, following a release order issued the same day by the Juvenile Court in Tripoli. Arrested in 2014 when he was still a minor, Walid was accused for being a "member of a terrorist group" by the Military Court sitting in Beirut on the sole basis of information extracted under torture. Concerned over the arbitrary character of his detention, Alkarama had sent Walid's case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on 29 August 2016 demanding for its urgent intervention with the Lebanese authorities. His case was then transferred to the Juvenile Court in Tripoli in September 2016.
On 22 September 2016, Mohamad Al Souki, a Syrian refugee arrested in late August in Sir El Danniyeh, north of Lebanon, by officers of the Military Intelligence for “not possessing a valid Lebanese residence permit”, reappeared after a month of disappearance. That day, upon information received by a former detainee, a notary public went to the premises of the military police at the Military Court in Beirut and received official confirmation by the authorities that Al Souki was held there. On 20 September 2016, Alkarama had sent his case to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID).
On 12 September 2014, Walid Diab, 16 year old at the time, was arrested at a military checkpoint upon information of “secret informants”. Secretly detained for three months and severely tortured despite his young age, he is currently facing trial before the Military Court; his next hearing will be held on 26 September 2016. Concerned over the gravity of these violations suffered by a minor, Alkarama wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to demand the urgent intervention of the five UN experts with the Lebanese authorities to demand that Walid be released and his allegations of torture investigated.