BEIRUT: Top officials moved to contain the fallout from a torture scandal in Lebanon’s Roumieh prison Monday, with Prime MinisterTammam Salam and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk promising to hold all those involved accountable.

Leaked videos surfaced on social media sites over the weekend, showing members of the Internal Security Forces brutally beating Islamist prisoners. The scandal sparked nationwide protests, with hundreds of demonstrators calling on Machnouk to resign.

Machnouk vowed “strict” punishment for the guards involved, stressing that the individual acts of some ISF members did not represent the whole institution.

“Investigation into the torture of detainees is underway, and we will not stop until judicial verdicts are issued against all who participated,” Machnouk told reporters at Roumieh prison, following a brief tour of the detention center.

Machnouk said he had delivered two messages to the ISF officers he met at Roumieh.

“This perpetration, done by a group of guards, shouldn’t undermine even for one moment the prestige and the stature of the Internal Security Forces. This is a security institution responsible for all Lebanese. An error or perpetration of a crime does not justify attacks against the ISF or any of its services.”

He said the second part of his message was that any member of the ISF violating the human rights of any detainee would be punished under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry.

The videos show guards beating a handful of handcuffed and kneeling prisoners with a baton, and groping and kicking them in the face.

Machnouk said that the number of ISF guards arrested in the case had risen to six, and that three of the guards were Christian and the three others were Muslim.

He said that during his tour he met with prisoners who appeared in the videos including Sheikh Omar Atrash, Qutaibah al-Asaad and Wael al-Samad. “I listened to the three prisoners who appeared in the video. Indeed, they were subjected to an unjustified and abnormal assault at Block D,” Machnouk added.

“I will not allow … any type of mistakes for any reason against any prisoner, regardless of what he’s accused of or his affiliation.”

Machnouk also warned that those attacking security institutions over the incidents were only serving the cause of extremism.

The minister also addressed the families of inmates, saying, “This mistake will not reoccur … all human rights will be secured for your sons.”

Machnouk dismissed allegations that Justice Minister Ashraf Rifiwas behind the leak of the videos.

The torture videos sparked protests in predominantly Sunni areas in Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon and the Bekaa Valley, with demonstrators calling on Machnouk to resign. Tripoli MP Mohammad Kabbara, Machnouk’s colleague in the Future bloc, also urged him to step down.

Machnouk said he was ready to resign if such a move would prevent outbreaks of extremism. But Nader Hariri, the director of the office of former premier Saad Hariri, visited Machnouk Monday, and expressed the Future Movement’s support.

The footage was shot during last April’s prison riot when prisoners blocked entrances, set mattresses on fire and took 12 guards and two doctors hostage.

The riot occurred in Roumieh’s Block D. Prisoners had demanded to be transferred back to Block B, where they had enjoyed considerable autonomy before the ISF forcibly relocated them to stricter quarters in January. It took the ISF days to quell the rioting.

But Machnouk was adamant that allowing “terrorists” to control Block B again “will not happen.”

Salam described the inmates’ torture as “disgraceful and immoral.”

The beating of prisoners, the premier said, “violates the Lebanese Constitution, which guarantees human rights,” as well as Lebanese laws that acknowledge the rights of prisoners irrespective of the charges brought against them.

The remarks were issued in a statement following a meeting he chaired to discuss the scandal which included Rifi, Machnouk, State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud and ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous. Salam urged judicial and security agencies to proceed with investigations in a “professional and transparent” manner, to identify the details of the incident and determine who was responsible.

He also urged the punishment of the security personnel who resorted to this “unjustifiable use of violence,” and warned against exploiting the incident to attack the ISF.

Rifi dismissed claims that he was behind the leak, saying that such claims were “bankrupt,” and described his ties with Machnouk as “good.”

Hammoud told The Daily Star that two of the guards carried out the beatings, one filmed the incidents, and two others who knew about them failed to come forward.

Hammoud said the last two had also received and published photos of the incident online.

“The judiciary will take very strict punitive measures against the perpetrators and anyone else who is proven, through investigation, to have executed, participated in, or incited the crime,” he said.

“There will be no political cover for anyone.”

Hammoud said the crime was not religiously or politically motivated, and asserted that the violation represented an “isolated crime” and not a systematic practice carried out by the ISF’s Information Branch.

For his part, Rifi told The Daily Star that he had “full faith” in the investigation, and that only the judiciary was authorized to punish those accused of “violating basic principles of human rights.”

He expressed his hope that the incident would lead to the end of torture in Lebanese prisons and detention centers.