Prison guards suspected of aiding Roumieh escape bid
Probe learns Inmates had cell phones in their spacious jail wing
Preliminary investigations into how eight Islamists almost escaped from a high-security Lebanese prison suggest the men received help from sources both inside and outside of jail, judicial sources said on Friday. Taha Ahmad Haji Suleiman, a Fatah al-Islam militant, escaped from Roumieh prison east of Beirut Tuesday morning, but was found in the nearby village of Bsalim the next day. Seven other Fatah al-Islam prisoners also attempted to flee but were thwarted by prison guards.
The Islamists sawed bars off of their cell windows, scaled the prison walls using blankets tied together, and then stood on one another’s shoulders to help Suleiman jump over a wall and escape, the Army said.
According to exclusive information provided to the Central News Agency by an unidentified judicial source Friday, Lebanese authorities are interrogating all eight Fatah al-Islam prisoners involved in an effort to understand how the men’ getaway plans went undetected. Roumieh’s prison wardens, particularly those responsible for guarding the special wing where the militants are held, are also being interrogated. Investigations are reportedly being carried out in total secrecy so as not to embroil the case in political bickering.
The source said the Islamists lived in a “spacious” wing adjacent to that formerly occupied by four former security officers accused of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. The men were free to move around the wing – a privilege not enjoyed by Roumieh’s other inmates. No less than 50 officers from the Internal Security Forces (ISF) were tasked with observing and protecting the eight men, the source said. The officers were also supposed to inspect visitors and the items they brought to the men.
Even before their thwarted escape, security forces received information saying the men might be plotting an escape.
A series of preventative measure were implemented in response to the information clearly proved “inefficient,” the source said.
“Big question marks” have been raised about the escape attempt, especially as another Roumieh prisoner attempted a similar plan eight years ago, said the source. Initial investigations have shown the men used a 20-meter ladder and “huge amounts of blankets which is more than what they would need inside the prison” during their botched escape, the source said.
Two cell phones have since been found inside the men’s cells, the source said. One was hidden inside the water pipes and the other under a mattress. One of the phones was used to make calls to the US, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The other was used to make calls in Lebanon, but all numbers dialed were erased. The judiciary has launched an investingation to trace the dialed numbers, the source said.
Evidence also suggested wardens had become lax in their scrutinizing of items brought in by the men’s visitors over recent months, the source said, citing growing ties between the prisoners and their guards. “This way, some equipment might have been smuggled to them.”
Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud on Tuesday ordered the arrest of several prison officials after an initial inquiry cited “deficiencies that might have facilitated the escape,” according to a ministry statement. Baroud ordered the ISF fire 60 officers from jobs at Lebanon’s 21 prisons and transferred to duties outside of the prison system within 15 days.
Baroud has promised a major shake-up in the country’s prison guard system, saying a further 300 ISF posts would be changed within two months. Lebanese law forbids prison guards from working in the same prison for more than two years.
Fatah al-Islam battled the Lebanese Army at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in May 2007. A total of 220 militants, 171 soldiers and 47 Palestinian civilians were killed before the Lebanese Army defeated the group in September 2007. Suleiman is charged with killing Lebanese soldiers during the fighting and is suspected of involvement in other attacks in Lebanon.