Hezbollah MP: Release of Islamists ‘positive step’

Hezbollah MP for Baalbek, Nawwar Sahili, called this week’s release of nine Islamist detainees a “positive but small step” and said that more needs to be done to free the remaining 98 similar prisoners, detained after the 2007 clashes between Fatah al-Islam members and the Lebanese Army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. “We renew our demand today ... to put an end to this case by releasing those who have been there for a long time, especially as some have been detained for longer than the sentence they would have received had their case gone to trial and they had been convicted,” he said in a statement. He said the detainees were victims of “political exploitation” and blamed previous governments for the delay in releasing them, adding, “they put pressure on the judiciary to keep the detainees in prison without trial, which we have always rejected and condemned.”