[prisoner-rights] Lebanon: Eight years solitary confinement without trial

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *

30 August 2002
MDE 18/011/2002


Amnesty International welcomed the release on bail of a member of
the Lebanese Forces Party (LFP).  Hanna Chalita(46) spent eight
years in solitary confinement without trial for his alleged
involvement in the assassination of MP Toni Frenjieh and members
of his family in 1978 during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90).

       The detention of Hanna Chalita for eight years without
trial is a clear violation of international human rights
standards.

       Amnesty International remains concerned about reports
that Hanna Chalita was tortured by military intelligence officers
at the Ministry of Defence Detention Centre in al-Yarze.  Hanna
Chalita has said that he was subjected to electric shocks,
suspended from the ceiling and suffered prolonged sleep
deprivation.

       "The Lebanese authorities should investigate these
allegations promptly, impartially and independently.  Those
responsible should be brought to justice in fair trials," Amnesty
International said.


Background
Hanna Chalita was detained in June 1994 during a wave of arrests
of LFP members. The LFP was outlawed in March 1994.

Articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Lebanon acceded in 1972,
provides for the right to trial within a reasonable time or to
release from detention.  Prolonged solitary confinement may
amount to torture and ill-treatment in violation of Article 7 of
the ICCPR. Article 7 of the ICCPR is considered non-derogable,
and therefore under no circumstance should such an article have
been violated, not even in the case of war.


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