With cheers, roses and music, Chekka, a small town in northern Lebanon, welcomed its liberated son Suhail al-Hamwi after 33 years of imprisonment in one of the monstrous Syrian prisons, in Latakia.
“Thirty-three years... I paid a lot, my wife paid a lot, and my son, who was 10 months old when I was arrested, paid a lot too,” Hamwi said in an interview with LBC. Speaking to another media outlet, he revealed that he learned of his charge 20 years after his arrest: “belonging to the Lebanese Forces.”
He was arrested in 1992 in front of his house.
In another moving story, Lebanese citizen Claude Hanna Leishaa Khoury, from the town of Deir al-Ahmar, was identified in a Syrian hospital after being detained in the prisons of the Syrian regime for nearly 40 years.
A photo of Khoury revealed the horrific brutality of the torture inflicted by the regime on this prisoner, who had been a soldier in the Lebanese Army in the late 1970s, costing him an eye.
Another case that took Lebanese by surprise was that of Ali Hassan Ali, whose photo was widely circulated on social media. His brother confirmed that the man in the image “looked like him” and that he had been detained for 40 years in Hama Prison. Ali may soon return to his family and to life once again.
Under growing pressure from opposition groups and families of the disappeared and detained in Syrian prisons, caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury, tasked by Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, convened a meeting at the Justice Palace with members of the Committee of Detainees in Syrian Prisons, chaired by Beirut Public Prosecutor Judge Ziad Abu Haidar. Attendees included Judge George Rizk and Brigadier General Ali Taha, who discussed the evolving situation in Syria and potential paths to justice.
They decided that “the security forces, including the Army Command, Internal Security Forces, General Security and State Security, will coordinate moving forward to gather any relevant information that could contribute to the file on detainees in Syrian prisons.” This includes verifying the names of those released from various prisons over the past two days and investigating the presence of other Lebanese in Assad’s prisons.
During the meeting, Brigadier General Taha was tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the detainees’ release to ensure proper follow-up and handling in accordance with procedures.
The issue of detainees is being closely monitoring by the prime minister and the minister of justice, who is set to hold additional meetings in the coming days with members of the Missing Persons Committee.
After 33 years of imprisonment, the town of #Chekka welcomes its son, #SouhailHammoui, freed from Bashar al-Assad's prisons. pic.twitter.com/HizyG8CEUs
— This is Beirut (@ThisIsBeirut_) December 9, 2024
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