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Lebanon's Parliament passes amnesty bill to release 79 Islamist detainees
Lebanon's Parliament has passed a bill providing for a general amnesty and exceptional sentence reductions in some cases. MP Imad al-Hout said 79 of 146 Islamist detainees would be released, as lawmakers debated overcrowding in prisons and the situation of people held without trial.
After months of disagreement among Lebanon's political groups, Parliament passed a bill providing for a general amnesty and exceptional reductions in some sentences. The measure was approved during Wednesday's legislative session after initiatives launched since May failed to reach a conclusion.
Speaking after the session, MP Imad al-Hout said 79 of the 146 Islamist detainees would be released from prison. In Lebanon, the term "Islamist detainees" is used for about 400 detainees, most of whom are held at Roumieh Prison.
Pressure on prison capacity
About 170 Syrians are among the Islamist detainees, and more than half of the group has not yet stood trial. The other detainees have court rulings against them. The measure approved by Parliament is estimated to cover about 4,000 people.
Although Lebanon's prisons have a capacity of about 8,500 people, unofficial figures show that occupancy has exceeded that capacity by 330 percent. The same figures show that more than 48 detainees died in 2025, while 11 deaths were recorded in prisons from the beginning of 2026 through Wednesday.
People awaiting trial make up about one-third of the prison population. About 1,200 people are being held solely on the basis of security reports, without judicial arrest warrants against them. The measure was passed as calls grew to address the situation of people held without trial.
Objections to the bill in Parliament
During the session, lawmakers from the Strong Lebanon Bloc, headed by Gebran Bassil, and MPs affiliated with Hezbollah left the chamber. They were protesting the refusal to allow Defense Minister Michel Menassa to enter Parliament to present the army's position on the general amnesty bill.
Some political and legal circles object to people facing murder, drug and corruption charges also benefiting from the amnesty. Al-Hout said they would no longer accept anyone being held beyond the legally permitted detention period.
Protests and Lebanese who sought refuge in Israel
A sit-in held in the city of Tripoli in late 2025 called for the general amnesty bill to be adopted. Mahmoud Abu Eid, coordinator of the Families of Islamist Detainees Committee, said the people concerned had been arrested on the grounds that they supported the uprising in Syria between 2011 and 2024.
Another issue in the general amnesty debate is the situation of Lebanese who sought refuge in Israel after the Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Unofficial figures put their number at about 4,000. Most are said to be Christians and Shiites who went to Israel while it maintained a military presence in southern Lebanon.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros al-Rai called in his Sunday sermon for the situation of Lebanese who sought refuge in Israel to be addressed as part of the general amnesty. In 2011, Lebanon's Parliament passed Law No. 194 to regulate the status of these people, covering those who went to Israel out of fear of retaliation or because of their previous ties to the South Lebanon Army, which was linked to Israel.
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