Hunger Strike at Roumieh Prison Enters Third Week as Lebanon's Amnesty Law Hangs in the Balance

Hundreds of inmates at Lebanon's largest prison have now been refusing food for more than two weeks, in a protest that has drawn urgent attention to the country's notoriously overcrowded and under-resourced detention system. According to a Lebanese legal campaigner, roughly 400 prisoners at Roumieh prison began their hunger strike on September 12, and their condition has since deteriorated sharply.

Mohammed Sablouh, a lawyer who also directs the Prisoners' Rights Center at the Tripoli Bar Association, described the situation inside the facility as grave. He told Al Jazeera that ambulances are arriving at the prison on a daily basis to carry away inmates whose health has collapsed, and that dozens of strikers have already required hospital treatment. "About 400 prisoners are on a hunger strike for more than two weeks. Ambulances enter daily to take [dozens of] them away because their condition is dire," he said.

Sablouh added that the striking inmates have escalated their protest by turning down not only food but also water and medication, raising the prospect of lasting physical harm or worse if the standoff continues. The strike is now in its eighteenth day, according to the source article, placing the protesters well beyond the point at which medical professionals typically warn of serious and potentially irreversible health consequences.

The immediate trigger for the action is the suspension of a general amnesty law that inmates had expected to bring them either immediate freedom or reduced sentences. That legislation was approved by Lebanon's parliament on August 12, following years of advocacy by rights groups and reform-minded politicians who argued it was necessary to relieve pressure on a prison system stretched far beyond its limits.

The law includes a provision that would release prisoners jailed for petty crimes, a category that accounts for a significant share of Lebanon's detainees. However, the amnesty's implementation has been frozen after the Free Patriotic Movement, one of the largest political parties in the country, lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Council. The party's objection centers on concerns that some of the inmates who stand to benefit have been charged with "terrorism" — a designation that opponents of the amnesty argue should disqualify them from release.

The Constitutional Council is expected to deliver its ruling on the appeal next month, meaning the fate of the law — and of the prisoners awaiting its benefits — remains unresolved for at least several more weeks. That uncertainty has left inmates and their families in limbo, and appears to have been a driving factor behind the decision to launch the hunger strike.

Among those refusing food are numerous prisoners who were arrested because of their solidarity with the Syrian revolution against former President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December 2024 after more than a decade of devastating conflict. Their cases have become a point of political sensitivity in Lebanon, where the aftermath of the Syrian war continues to shape domestic debates over security, justice and regional alignments.

The protest has not been confined to the prison walls. Demonstrations have also been held in Tripoli, Lebanon's second-largest city, where supporters of the amnesty law and relatives of detainees have gathered to demand that the legislation move forward. The mobilizations underscore the degree to which the amnesty debate has become a broader public flashpoint rather than a narrow legal dispute.

Conditions inside Lebanon's penitentiaries have long been the subject of alarm. The country's prison population currently stands at approximately 8,500 people, according to the source article — nearly double the system's intended capacity. Sablouh said the overcrowding rate exceeds 330 percent of facilities' actual capacity, a figure that implies severe pressure on sleeping quarters, sanitation, medical services and staffing.

Thousands of inmates spend years behind bars without ever standing trial, a consequence of chronic delays in Lebanon's judicial system. Sablouh placed much of the blame on the courts' failure to observe Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which sets limits on pre-trial detention: two months for misdemeanors, renewable for an equal period, and six months for felonies, also renewable, up to a maximum of one year. In practice, those deadlines are frequently ignored, leaving detainees to languish in custody while their cases stall.

The human cost of these conditions has been stark. More than 40 prisoners died in 2025, according to Sablouh, who said the causes ranged from medical neglect to torture, with some deaths attributed to suicide following prolonged trials and repeated postponements. He characterized the overall situation in Lebanese prisons as "truly tragic," warning that the system can no longer absorb any further shock — including the possibility that the amnesty law could be overturned entirely.

The August 12 legislation was designed precisely to address those overcrowded conditions, offering a rare legislative remedy to a problem that has festered for years. Its suspension has therefore left both inmates and reform advocates without the relief they had counted on, and has turned the Constitutional Council's forthcoming verdict into a pivotal moment for Lebanon's penal system.

For the strikers at Roumieh, the coming weeks may prove decisive. With roughly 400 people refusing sustenance and medical attention, and with ambulance traffic to the facility continuing daily, the pressure on Lebanese authorities — and on the Constitutional Council — is likely to intensify. How the state responds will shape not only the immediate fate of those on hunger strike, but also the wider question of whether Lebanon can begin to remedy a prison system that rights advocates say has been failing the people inside it for years.