Demands Closure of Al-Khiam Detention Centre in Occupied South Lebanon Khiam Prison in occupied South Lebanon operates outside the framework of international law and should be closed at once, says FWN! Director, Sara Thompson QC, who returned last week from a fact-finding visit to the Middle East. In Lebanon, Ms Thompson met former detainees at Al-Khiam who graphically described beatings, torture and threats of reprisals against relatives. Ms Thompson is particularly concerned about female detainees, some of whom have been threatened with rape. She said, ‘Prisoners have no idea how long they will be detained or the charges against them. Interrogations are carried out under torture, which is outlawed under international treaties. One former inmate told me he had been suspended by his wrists for long periods and given electric shocks on his fingers, feet and ears.’ Other men who were held in Khiam described being forced to eat and sleep in filthy punishment cells, which were too small to stand up in, for up to ten days.
