"This crime cannot go unpunished. I’ve asked the Prosecutor General to pursue the investigation to its very end," Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper.
Video footage depicting two of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) members striking several handcuffed and kneeling prisoners with batons has surfaced earlier across various social media platforms. Two of the officers in the video were arrested on Sunday.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said the footage was filmed in April, following a revolt at the Roumieh prison where prisoners took 20 guards hostage.
Machnouk assumed "full responsibility for what occurred" at a late Sunday press conference and vowed to prosecute the officers.
The ISF issued a statement acknowledging an ongoing investigation into the leaked videos.
"This Directorate General [of ISF] has enough courage to recognize [it] committed an error which constitutes an offense and an assault on human dignity by a few of its members."
Roumieh, Lebanon’s largest prison housing suspected Islamists, has been the site of intermittent riots and subsequent raids by security forces.
