الإقامة الشرعيّة لا تحمي دائماً من العنصريّة (مروان طحطح)
رواية اللاجئين والمقيمين
رأي الأمن العام
لبنان واللجوء
سجن العار
إياكم أن تتكلّموا عنّا بسوء
الإقامة الشرعيّة لا تحمي دائماً من العنصريّة (مروان طحطح)
رواية اللاجئين والمقيمين
رأي الأمن العام
لبنان واللجوء
سجن العار
كتبت ابتسام سعيد:
برأت محكمة الاستئناف مواطنة متهمة بقتل خادمتها بعصا وتركها في حوض الحمام عشر ساعات دون علاج من تهمة القتل العمد، وحكمت عليها بالسجن سبع سنوات عن تهمة ضرب أفضى الى موت.
وكانت محكمة الجنايات حكمت بحبس المتهمة 15 سنة مع الشغل بعد اتهامها بقتل الخادمة عمدا بأن انهالت عليها ضرباً بـ «عصا حديدية وأخرى خشبية» ودفعها حتى ارتطمت رأسها بحوض الحمام وتركتها عاجزة عن الحركة قرابة عشر ساعات دون أن تتداركها بالعلاج حتى توفيت.
وحضر أمام المحكمة دفاع المتهمة المحامي يعقوب عبد المحسن الصانع وترافع مؤسسا استئنافه على 10 أسباب: وهي الخطأ في تطبيق القانون وتوجيه التهمة الى زوج المتهمة طبقاً لنص المادة 134 من قانون الاجراءات والمحاكمات الجزائية وضرب الزوج للخادمة وسبب ارتكابه للجريمة ووجود زوج المتهمة بالمسكن خلال الفترة من الساعة 12 ظهراً حتى 7.30 مساء وعدم تحديد وقت الوفاة والمطالبة بتعديل وصف التهمة من قتل عمد الى قتل خطأ، وذلك لما أثبته تقرير الطب أن الوفاة حدثت نتيجة اصابات رضية شديدة متكررة نتج عنها تأثر الأجهزة الحيوية بالجسم مما أدى الى هبوط حاد بالقلب والتنفس وصدمة، وقد جاء تكييف النيابة العامة للواقعة على أنها قتل عمد تكييفاً غير صحيح لا يتناسب مع وقائع الدعوى وأسباب وفاة الخادمة خصوصا وأن جريمة القتل من الجرائم العمدية التي يتطلب لقيامها القصد الجنائي العام. منوها الى انتفاء القصد الجنائي جريمة القتل العمد تتميز عن غيرها من جرائم الاعتداء على النفس بعنصر خاص هو أن يقصد الجاني من ارتكاب الفعل الجنائي ازهاق روح المجني عليه ، وهذا العنصر ذو طابع خاص يختلف عن القصد الجنائي العام الذي يتطلبه القانون في سائر الجرائم، وهو بطبيعته أمر يبطنه الجاني ويضمره في نفسه، وقال: الثابت من أوراق القضية أن المجني عليها كانت تعمل خادمة لدى المتهمة وزوجها ولهما حق تأديبها ومن ثم جاءت اصاباتها بطريقة غير عمدية اذ ثابت من الأوراق أن المجني عليها كانت تستحم وتترك باب الحمام مفتوحاً وكان ذلك يثير غضب المتهمة وزوجها.
وقال: ندفع بانتفاء القصد الجنائي وعدم توافر قصد القتل، ومسؤولية رعاية المجني عليها تقع على عاتق الزوج وليس المتهمة.
وعلق قائلا: ان الاتهامات التي وجهتها النيابة العامة للمتهمة تصل عقوبتها للاعدام وأننا طالبنا في دفاعنا بعدة دفوع أدت الى تخفيف الحكم الصادر بحق موكلتنا.
We are a group of Lebanese and international organizations working on human rights issues in Lebanon. We are writing to voice our concern regarding the continued detention of migrants and refugees after they finish serving their sentences, without any legal basis for the continued detention and to recommend ways to put an end to this violation of Lebanese and international human rights law.
The detention of foreigners in Lebanon following the end of their sentences is a long-standing problem. According to a report by the Internal Security Forces, as of August 24, 2009, 13 percent of detainees in Lebanese prisons were foreigners who had finished serving their sentence and yet remained in jail. The group included asylum seekers and refugees who cannot safely return to their country.
Over the last two months, Lebanese courts issued four decisions deeming that the continued detention of four Iraqis who had finished serving their sentences was illegal under Lebanese law and under Lebanon's international obligations.[1] Three of the Iraqis had remained in detention for more than a year following the end of their sentence. These decisions highlight a broader problem that currently exists in Lebanon when it comes to the protection of the basic rights of detained foreigners.
Under the current system, whenever a foreign detainee finishes serving his or her sentence, the Internal Security Forces, which manages the prisons, do not release him or her but rather refer the case to the Directorate General of General Security, regardless of whether the court has ruled that he or she should be deported.[2] These foreign detainees are then either kept in the prison where they served their sentence, transferred to Roumieh central prison or referred to the custody of General Security in their detention facility in Adlieh. Regardless of their place of detention, many are kept for months after the expiry of their judicial sentence before they are either released or deported.
There are a number of problems with this situation. As the courts pointed out in their four decisions, there is no legal basis for detaining a foreigner following the end of his or her sentence. Lebanese law generally provides that in cases where the court orders the deportation of a foreigner, that person has 15 days to exit the country "by his or her own means" (Art. 89 of the Penal Code). The only provision in Lebanese law that allows General Security to detain a person is if the person represents a threat to national security or public security. In such a case, but only in such a case, Article 18 of the 1962 Law on Entry and Exit allows the director general of General Security to detain a foreigner administratively with the approval of the public prosecutor until his or her deportation.[3]
Your excellencies, the detention of foreigners after the end of their sentence has become widespread practice in Lebanon, but it takes place outside the realm of the law and beyond the purview of judicial oversight: the continued detention of foreigners following the end of their sentence is generally not based on any sort of judicial or administrative order. The Lebanese judiciary has finally recognized this important fact. In the four rulings mentioned above, the judges determined that detention was neither based on a judicial decision nor an administrative decision of General Security and accordingly could not be upheld.
There are today more than 230 foreigners, including at least 13 refugees, who have finished serving their sentence and yet remain in prison. The Lebanese judiciary has highlighted the need to reform this system. It is now up to the Lebanese authorities to enact the necessary measures to ensure compliance with Lebanon's constitution, notably Article 8, which states that "no one may be arrested, imprisoned, or kept in custody except in according to the provisions of the law." as well as Lebanon's obligations under international law, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 9 of that treaty states that "No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law."
To ensure compliance, we propose the following measures to tackle the issue:
A. As an immediate step, we urge:
B. As an intermediary step, we urge you to:
We would like to thank you for considering this letter and hope that you will be able to release the foreigners who have finished serving their sentence as soon as possible,
Sincerely,
Kamel Jendoubi,
President of EMHRN
Darine el-Hage, Executive Director
ALEF
Khiam Rehabilitaion Center for Victims of Torture
Suzanne Jabbour, Executive Director, Restart Center
For Rehabilitation Of Victims
Of Violence And Torture
Nadim Houry, Beirut Director, HRW
Marie Daunay,
Presidente, CLDH
Frontiers Ruwad Association
Rachid Mesli
Legal Director
Alkarama
Souhayr Belhassen, President, FIDH
MECC
Middle East Council of Churches
Eric Sottas
Secretary General, OMCT
André Barthélemy
President,
Agir Ensemble pour les Droits de l'Homme
Georges Assaf
Director
PINACLE
Hélène Legeay
Responsable des programmes Maghreb Moyen-Orient
ACAT