BEIRUT: Caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar instructed the attorney general’s office to look into whether Lebanese prisoners in Syria would be included in the general amnesty issued last week by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"[Najjar] referred the decree to the general prosecutor’s office ... to take a look at it and determine how Lebanese on trial or arrested or those prosecuted by Syria benefit from it," a statement released by the Justice Ministry said. It added that Najjar had obtained the content of the decree from the Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council.
On May 31st, Assad declared a general amnesty for all prisoners who had committed crimes to that date, the state media reported. The amnesty applies to all political prisoners as well as the Muslim Brotherhood.
Families of many Lebanese who went missing during the 1975-1990 Civil War have long maintained that their loved ones are being held in Syria.
The NGO Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile estimates that there are 107 Lebanese in Syrian prisons.