According to the vision of the detainees and their families, the way the Lebanese side dealt with the meeting reveals, as they say, “the insistence of some political forces within the Lebanese government to disrupt the handling of the file of Syrian detainees in Lebanese prisons.” They consider this negatively affects relations between the two countries and prevents building a normal and sound relationship.
After what they described as “deliberate neglect” of their demands, the families and their supporters announced the beginning of a new phase of escalating actions in the coming period. According to their statement, future plans include closing the borders to Lebanese trade, in addition to filing international lawsuits related to violations they confirm were committed against detainees inside Lebanese prisons, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture, and arbitrary detention.
In an escalating message, the detainees and their families addressed a direct speech to the Lebanese people, in which they said that “the Lebanese state was a partner in our tragedy” because of its silence about Hezbollah’s role in Syria and its failure to take measures to prevent the transfer of fighters and weapons between the two countries, which they believe contributed to exacerbating the Syrian tragedy over the past fourteen years.
The detainees and their families concluded by emphasizing that the next steps will be “clear and explicit,” and that the level of escalation will depend on the extent to which the Lebanese government responds to their basic demand, which is to address the issue of detainees away from narrow political calculations.
