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Lina Fakhreddin wrote in the Al-Akhbar newspaper:
The number of people infected with Coronavirus is increasing in prisons where the number of prisoners exceeds their capacity. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with the Supreme Judicial Council, is trying to speed up the trials, tolerate detention and submit requests for release. This fate seems unsuccessful, with the lack of equipment in courthouses and detention centers, the absence of supervision by judges and the lack of legalization of the electronic interrogation process.
A young man from Al-Sh. More than 8 months ago in one of the Bekaa detention centers. The detainee was charged with committing a misdemeanor with the aim of threatening during an incident, and without injury. He was arbitrarily detained, without being heard by the investigating judge, due to pressure from the archive. At this time, the young man obtained the revocation of a right, but his “bad luck” kept him detained without a frontal investigation order.
The father of the detainee stood up due to his frequent hesitations in the Palace of Justice, to ask the investigating judge to establish a session to question his son and issue an arrest warrant against him, but the judge administered the “ear of Tarsha “. He is the same “boss” who slept on his judicial vacation, so the file was transferred to another judge who released the detainee because his sentence expired more than 5 months ago.
The incident of this young man, who spent a full year in prison without a notable arrest warrant issued against him, is not an orphan in overcrowded detention centers and courthouses, and the most basic human rights are not respected. The number of Syrians without legal residence stands in the hundreds inside the interrogation centers. These escaped the war and went to the sewer of the Lebanese prison.
Consequently, it seems logical that the number of prisoners (more than 8000) exceeds the capacity of the 25 vessels and prisons distributed throughout the regions, as long as hundreds of detainees wait months to set a date for a session for their interrogation, or there is who have expired their sentences without being able to pay fines or bail. Be released and appoint a lawyer to pursue your case, or of the foreigners that General Security refuses to receive in their glasses in preparation for their deportation under the pretext of the Corona outbreak.
It is the crisis of an entire country that has overlooked the construction of rehabilitative prisons, the adoption of modern legal legislation and the increase in the number of judges and prosecutors, in addition to the laxity of security services and the carelessness of some judges of their judicial duties to the detriment of their personal interests, as well as some legal texts (for example, articles 402, 138 and 108 of the Law) did not apply. Criminal Procedures), which causes overcrowding of detention centers with detainees … not arrested!
From paper and pen … to digital
So the crisis is there. What made matters worse was the spread of the coronavirus, with about 800 infections among inmates. At that time, the judiciary entered the state of Koma and the crisis grew almost exploding. Provisional Government Justice Minister Marie-Claude Negm, in cooperation with the Supreme Judicial Council, tried to find solutions. The most important are the generalization of the idea of remote electronic interrogation, the suspension of terms, the attempt not to issue arrest warrants against those who commit “minor” offenses, the facilitation of the process of filing the release by electronic means, and leniency to sign them, as well as not to appeal them.
The picture has become surreal: the judges who worked in the recent “tench” courthouses destined to go without electricity, heating and cooling systems, and issuing their judgments by fax, on paper and pen, have been forced to relocate into the world of technology with the click of a button and without prior notice.
The Minister of Justice knows there is no trick. He is the one that has been following up on the treatment of the outbreak of “justice”, the water leak to the courts, and the power cuts in their buildings, which leads to the suspension of the work of the employees there for three hours a day!
The examples of the misery of the reality of the failure of justice are innumerable. The judges are ruling on the case of paper breaks and many materials (such as envelopes, plungers, fax rolls, light bulbs …) from most of their offices. In the past, judges used to buy it with their own money, but with rising prices and the erosion of their pensions, many judges found it impossible to reach their pockets to obtain those supplies.
And if essential materials are missing from the offices, how could online questioning be the solution?
The judges say that very few of them apply the idea of remote interrogation. Some of them are not qualified to use technology, and others are not interested in speeding up trials, citing the illegality of the decisions, while the main obstacle is the absence of equipment. It is obvious that the result is: Some judicial bodies and judges have not held sessions for more than 7 months!
The head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Suhail Abboud, notes that the Council, in cooperation with the Minister of Justice and the Beirut Bar Association (provided logistical and human support), has equipped the Beirut Criminal Court, which now holds his sessions two days a week (he has conducted more than 400 remote interrogations), led by the judge. Khaled Al-Bitar, in the presence of all its members, in addition to defense agents and witnesses, to question the detainees, through an Internet-connected screen, and to secure a single Internet-connected laptop for the majority of the courthouses, in a session between the judges.
Abboud explained to Al-Akhbar that the council met with the head of the interim government, Hassan Diab, and presented him with a list of the equipment needed to equip criminal chambers, criminal courts, cassation courts, appeals, sole judges and prosecutorial bodies … in all provinces, with large screens connected to the Internet and laptops.
As they wait for the rains from the Saraya sky over the courthouses, the situation remains the same: unemployed judges and others interrogate detainees electronically using the Internet from their mobile phones or securing a wireless router at their expense … and even that the attorney general secures the Internet with a personal effort for the police station belonging to his department!
However, the situation cannot continue in this way, with the impossibility of electronic interrogation in many cases, such as interrogation in the criminal courts of the regions due to the need for the presence of the entire court, which is made up of the head of the court, the advisers, the representative of the Public Ministry and the secretary, in addition to the presence of the plaintiff, the defense agents of the two parties and witnesses. .
Judges also face a major obstacle when the file includes more than one detainee distributed in more than one detention center, leading to postponement of hearings in most cases.
Of course, the adoption of the electronic interrogation mechanism becomes more difficult if it is generalized in all criminal courts and cassation and appeal chambers, since it is not possible to conduct wholesale electronic interrogations in a single investigation center.
Barriers to electronic interrogation
A judge reports that his experience with remote interrogation is considered successful due to the saving of time and effort when transferring detainees to interrogation centers, which can be difficult in some cases, such as the absence of personnel, failure of mechanisms or roadblocks due to weather in mountainous areas.
On the other hand, there are many obstacles that delay their work, such as frequent disconnections from the network, power cuts due to remote deficiencies in justice and lack of modern equipment in most research centers. At that time, the judge relied on the “enthusiasm” of the military who agreed to use their own telephone to conduct the interrogation. While this option seems impossible in some army centers, for example, where soldiers are prohibited from accessing their phones.
The list of obstacles continues, as the judge points out the lack of coordination between the Directorate of Prisons and the rest of the prisons, “which forces me to contact more than one investigation center to find the detainee and expedite their interrogation , in addition to the neglect of the security services that invoke the end of the official working day or follow the bureaucracy. Without receiving a steering wire ”.
Source: News
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