Reporters Without Borders and the Swiss-based human rights NGO Alkarama deplore the two-week jail sentence that a Beirut military court passed on 9 December on the journalist Rami Aysha on a charge of buying firearms, replacing the six-month sentence he received when tried in absentia last month.

Reporters Without Borders and the Swiss-based human rights NGO Alkarama condemn the six-month jail sentence that Lebanese journalist Rami Aysha received in absentia from a Beirut military court last week on a charge of purchasing firearms.

As we approach the International Human Rights Day on December 10, our organizations join efforts to call again upon the Lebanese authorities to criminalize the practice of torture.

Following the outbreak of clashes in Saida on 23 and 24 June, which lead to numerous casualties, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) conducted searches in the city and its surroundings. During these operations, at least 140 individuals were arrested and at least 27 remain currently in detention. Alkarama was informed that the families of two of the detained, Ahmad and Jamal*, have not had any news of their relatives while the testimonies of men who were released fuel fears that they may currently be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhumane of degrading treatment.

Alkarama calls on the Lebanese authorities to end the secret detention of those arrested following the events in Saida by allowing them to be in contact with their families as well as a legal counsel of their choosing and by immediately placing them under the protection of the law or releasing them.