Fatah al-Islam militant escapes from prison

Baroud orders suspension of several officers at jail

Daily Star staff
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces launched a manhunt on Tuesday for an Islamist militant being held on terror charges who escaped from the country’s largest prison in a pre-dawn jail break. “Taha Ahmad Haji Sleiman, who has dual Syrian and Palestinian nationality, escaped this morning from Roumieh prison,” an army spokesman said. Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud visited the prison and ordered the suspension of several police officers who were on duty until an investigation is carried out, said the state-run National News Agency. He also ordered all officers on duty in Lebanon’s prisons to be transferred to other departments within 15 days and lower ranking policemen within two months, it said.

Troops backed by helicopters are searching for the fugitive, who is charged with belonging to a “terrorist network,” the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militia, which fought deadly battles with the Lebanese army in 2007. The army released his picture and urged anyone with information to contact the military.

Seven other inmates also belonging to Fatah al-Islam attempted to break out with him but were recaptured, the army spokesman said.

The eight Fatah al-Islam members sawed bars off their cell windows in a high-security Lebanese prison Tuesday, scaled down the building using blankets tied together, then stood on each other’s shoulders to help one jump over a wall and escape, security officials said.

Prison guards scrambled and stopped seven from fleeing, but one escaped, the officials said.

The officials described the escaped prisoner, Suleiman, as a “dangerous” member of Fatah al-Islam.

Later on Tuesday, Baroud ordered the arrest of several prison officials after a preliminary enquiry found “deficiencies that might have facilitated the escape,” a ministry statement said.

He also ordered the internal security forces (ISF) to sack 60 of its officers from jobs at the country’s 21 prisons and to move them to unrelated duties outside the prison system within 15 days.

Another 300 ISF members would be relocated to posts outside prisons within two months.

Baroud said Lebanese prisons were understaffed and underequipped, adding he received “numerous complaints on transgressions and incompetence within prisons” and had transferred the complaints to the Lebanese judiciary.

“But this is a long process, and therefore it was necessary that measures be taken while waiting for the result of the investigation,” he said.

“We have taken radical and unprecedented measures as this is one of the most dangerous things that could happen,” he said.

Fatah al-Islam launched a battle in the summer of 2007 against the military from their stronghold within the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Army crushed the group after three months, but the clashes left 220 militants, 171 soldiers and 47 Palestinian civilians dead. Dozens of the group’s members were captured.

Suleiman was among those arrested and charged with killing Lebanese troops during the camp fighting. He is also suspected of involvement in other bombings in Lebanon.

The seven other Fatah al-Islam members who tried to escape Tuesday include Abu Salim Taha, who served as the group’s spokesman during the fighting, and Yasser al-Shuqairi, who is standing trial for his role in twin bus bombings that killed three passengers Ain Alaq in February 2007, the officials said.

A third prisoner broke his back when his blanket line got untied and he fell from a height of about five meters. The officials said he was hospitalized.