Lebanon: General Amnesty Passes the Constitutional Council Toward Implementation

Lebanon's Constitutional Council accepted in form, and rejected in substance, the appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement against the general amnesty law, while requesting clarifications on a few of its articles, opening the door to the start of release procedures for beneficiaries. A judicial source spoke of preliminary estimates of releasing more than 1,000 prisoners in the first phase within two weeks, and said Public Prosecutor Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj tasked prosecutors with speeding up procedures. After the decision, hundreds of prisoners suspended their 30-day open hunger and medicine strike, while the fate of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir remained pending before the Military Court of Cassation on his request for release.