Lebanon General Amnesty Debate Continues as Nabih Berry Faces Judicial System Collapse Criticism

Debates around Lebanon’s General Amnesty Law continued on Wednesday within parliamentary committees, with the proposal relaunched by Speaker of the House Nabih Berry and adoption postponed several times due to a lack of political consensus, according to Ici Beyrouth.

“The Lebanese political scene is entering a new zone of turbulence”

Africtelegraph

The text aims to relieve prison overcrowding and ease certain social and security tensions, but Ici Beyrouth frames it as a return to a deeper question: “the collapse of the Lebanese judiciary.”

Africtelegraph

The outlet says Lebanese prisons operate at nearly 330% of capacity, with a chronically overcrowded population fed not only by convicts but especially by detainees awaiting judgment.

It adds that thousands of cases accumulate in court drawers, “some for years,” turning preventive detention into de facto punishment.

Ici Beyrouth describes dysfunctions including repeated postponements of hearings, slow proceedings, notification failures, late transfers of detainees to the courts, and incomplete investigations.

It also says that in some jurisdictions “a few judges are overwhelmed with hundreds of cases,” and that strikes and protest movements have compounded the paralysis.

In that context, the outlet quotes a lawyer interviewed by Ici Beyrouth, speaking under anonymity, saying, “Without judicial reform, any amnesty will be only a temporary bandage.”

Africtelegraph reports that Lebanon’s political scene is entering “a new zone of turbulence,” centering on Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri distancing himself from President of the Republic Joseph Aoun’s strategy.

The Beirut-based daily Al-Akhbar, close to Hezbollah, claims Washington is stepping up pressure to deepen a rift between Aoun and Berri, and Africtelegraph says the immediate consequence would be Berri’s gradual withdrawal from the line defined by Baabda.

Ici Beyrouth

Al-Akhbar characterizes Baabda as “too pliant to American demands on Hezbollah’s weapons and on dialogue with Israel,” according to Africtelegraph.

The report says Joseph Aoun, elected in January 2025 after more than two years of vacancy, built his arrival at Baabda Palace on a fragile compromise with the Shiite Amal-Hezbollah tandem, whose votes were decisive.

It describes Aoun’s roadmap as built around the state’s monopoly on weapons and the stabilization of the south of the country after the war with Israel, while Al-Akhbar says this is now described as closely aligned with the expectations of the American envoy.

Africtelegraph adds that Nabih Berri, in office since 1992 and described as a figurehead of the Amal movement, would have concluded that the presidential trajectory no longer offered him necessary guarantees.

The report says Al-Akhbar mentions a “calculated withdrawal, without a frontal rupture,” but sufficiently clear to signal to regional and international actors that the Speaker will not cover a move perceived as unilateral.

It also states that technical talks on the southern border and on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 remain bogged down, while Washington is described as using leverage and Hezbollah as being “in the crosshairs.”

Africtelegraph says Al-Akhbar portrays Washington’s administration as pushing the head of state to “harden the tone toward Hezbollah,” including on the timeline for disarmament south of the Litani and on reconstruction of areas struck by Israeli bombardments.

“FOCUS Christian MPs seek to include Lebanese in Israel in general amnesty Several MPs believe that the families of fighters from the South Lebanon Army should be allowed to return”

Today

The report adds that U.S. diplomacy, relayed to Beirut by envoy Morgan Ortagus and then by successive emissaries, would condition international aid and the lifting of certain sanctions on “concrete progress on these files.”

In Africtelegraph’s account, this is framed as “a direct instrumentalization of the presidency,” with Berri refusing to endorse an approach he deems ineffective.

The outlet says Berri’s entourage, cited by Al-Akhbar, considers that frontal pressure on Hezbollah, “in the wake of the 2024 war,” would only worsen sectarian tensions and further weaken institutions.

Africtelegraph states that the Speaker would favor a return to the consensus mechanisms laid out in the Taif Agreement of 1989.

It also describes the dispute as testing the mechanics of Lebanese power, built on cohabitation between a Maronite president, a Sunni prime minister, and a Shiite Speaker of the Parliament.

The report says any lasting fracture at the top of the executive and the legislature would complicate budget adoption, the monitoring of reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the appointment of senior public officials, issues already frozen for several months.

Africtelegraph further links the stakes to regional actors, saying a Lebanon in which the Aoun-Berri tandem were to unravel would give Tehran additional room to consolidate Hezbollah’s foothold, while Israel would see it as justification for new preventive operations.

It contrasts that with a renewed internal compromise that could “breathe new life into the indirect negotiations underway on the maritime and land borders.”

Today reports that Christian MPs are seeking to include Lebanese in Israel in a general amnesty, tying the issue to ongoing efforts to pass a general amnesty law.

The outlet says the joint parliamentary committees met at Place de l'Étoile on May 4, 2026, and frames the political battle as unfolding “in the coming weeks,” particularly amid international pressure, “particularly U.S.,” to break the ice between Lebanon and Israel to end the ongoing war.

Ici Beyrouth

Today says Sunni leaders are pushing for the release of so-called “Islamist” detainees, while Christian officials work to ensure the amnesty also applies to Lebanese who have been living in Israel since the Israeli withdrawal in 2000.

It adds that the issue is being brought back to the forefront as Christian MPs seek to allow the families of fighters from the South Lebanon Army to return, and it states that Hezbollah says it is open to the idea.

Today’s text identifies the South Lebanon Army as “a pro-Israeli force founded in 1976 by Saad Haddad, a Lebanese Army officer who defected.”

It also states that after Israel’s withdrawal in May 2000, many Lebanese—particularly Christians and Shiites who were members of the South Lebanon Army—fled, though the article text cuts off before detailing where they fled.

In the same broader context of amnesty, Ici Beyrouth argues that without judicial reform any amnesty will be only a temporary bandage, while Africtelegraph describes how U.S. pressure and Hezbollah-related disarmament timelines are entangled with Lebanon’s internal power dynamics.

Taken together, the sources place the amnesty law at the intersection of domestic justice capacity, parliamentary strategy, and cross-border political negotiations.