(Syria Files) Beirut- About 560 Syrian inmates held in Roumieh Prison are at risk of death as COVID-19 spreads in Lebanon’s largest jail, one of the inmates told Syria Files via a phone call.
Inmates, including Syrians, rioted last Sunday after infections were detected among a small number of inmates. The riots mainly occurred in Block B of the prison compound where about 560 Syrian inmates are being held.
Bloc B is known as the Islamists block.
According to Syria Files source, fellow Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect inmates have called on the Syrian President to mediate their transfer to another prison or to mediate for general Amnesty.
Roumieh Prison has registered 228 coronavirus cases among inmates and 25 cases among security personnel, an Interior Ministry source told The Lebanese Daily Star on Wednesday.
The source told the Daily Star that the infected prisoners were transferred to an empty building to quarantine, stressing that the situation was “under control.” Security personnel are quarantining in their homes.
Roumieh Prison houses more than 3,000 prisoners, with cells holding triple their capacity, and has long been infamous for the poor conditions in some of its blocks. There is also little health care and medicine available for prisoners, according to the Lebanese daily.
Lebanon has recorded 26,000 Coronavirus cases and 260 deaths since February.
