BEIRUT: Inmates of Block D in Metn’s Roumieh Prison began a hunger strike Tuesday in demand of a general amnesty for some prisoners, according to local media reports.

Families of the prisoners were reportedly holding a sit-in in support of the demand.

Similar hunger strikes for general amnesty and in protest of prison conditions were staged in Roumieh as well as in Tripoli’s Qibbeh Prison in February, with the situation in Qibbeh devolving into a riot after tightened security measures were imposed in response to the demonstration.

Around the same time, high level officials had reiterated their support for a well-studied general amnesty law, which would reportedly affect tens of thousands of outstanding warrants in addition to at least several hundred prisoners.

When Cabinet was formed, it had said in its policy statement it would “work to approve the draft general amnesty law,” but nothing has yet come to fruition.

A network of Sunni and Shiite activists has for years been calling for the law, which would mostly benefit people from the Shiite-majority Bekaa region and Sunni-majority north Lebanon imprisoned or wanted on charges of participating in Islamist violence, drug crimes and theft