Articles for Lebanon

One year after the adoption by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of an Opinion recognising the arbitrary character of the detention of 72 persons arrested following the 2007 Nahr Al Bared crisis and calling for their immediate release, the majority of them remain detained.

On 6 November 2015, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) adopted a draft report containing the recommendations made by United Nations Member States to Lebanon during the State's review, which took place on 2 November 2015.

On 9 October 2015, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on the case of Layal al-Kayaje, detained since her summon for investigation by the Lebanese Military Intelligence in Saida, on 21 September 2015, shortly after she denounced having been tortured and raped by military officers during her detention in 2013.

The signatory organizations call upon the Lebanese judiciary to act on the case of Layal al-Kayaje, a veterinary clinic employee from Saida, who was summoned for investigation on September 21, 2015 by Lebanese army intelligence in Saida, Lebanon, following her statements on alleged torture and rape during detention.

On 14 September 2015, Alkarama and the Lebanese organisation March sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (SR FPAA), Maina Kiai, regarding the case of Lebanese writer, director and social activist, Lucien Bourjeily, injured by security forces durin

On 23 March 2015 Alkarama will submitt its report on Lebanon's human rights record to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in view of Lebanon's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on 3 November 2015. Alkarama raised key issues such as the widespread use of torture, the recourse to arbitrary detention as well as violations of fair trial rights.

On 1 February 2015, Tarek Rabaa was set free, after more than four years of detention in Lebanese jails. Summoned to the Ministry of Defence for investigation on 12 July 2010, the 45-year-old Lebanese engineer was subsequently arrested. An arrest warrant was issued a month later on charges of "collaborating and communicating with the enemy".

During its 71st session held in Geneva on 28 August 2014, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) adopted an opinion on the case of Tariq Mostafa Marei and Abdel Karim Al Mustafa, two Lebanese citizens sentenced on 6 August 2013 to 15 years in prison, following a flawed trial. In this opinion, the WGAD considers their detention "arbitrary" and calls for their immediate release.

Beirut, 20 October 2014

Geneva/Beirut, 10 October 2014