BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun discussed prison conditions in Lebanon with the interior minister Wednesday, amid riots in the Roumieh prison Monday night.

Inmates expressed anger that the general amnesty law has not been passed yet as well as their concern over the spread of coronavirus.

Security forces had intervened in order to quell the chaotic situation, as videos of fires and crowds of inmates protesting in block B of the prison, which holds Islamist inmates linked to terror cases, circulated online.

Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi and Aoun discussed the general security situation in country and the work of the ministry, during their meeting at the Baabda Palace.

They also discussed an urgent draft law aimed to pardon prisoners who have served their sentences but are still in prison for failing to pay fines and that was approved by Cabinet Tuesday.

Aoun and Fahmi also talked about the necessity to provide prisoners with health care and disinfection of the prisons, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak in Lebanon and the inmates’ concerns with regards to it.

The interior minister’s office confirmed in a statement Wednesday that there were no inmates or security forces infected with coronavirus in prisons.

According to the statement Fahmi instructed security forces in prisons to follow precautionary measures against the spread of coronavirus.