Lack of facilities had led to pre trial detainees being held in the same detention institutions as convicted prisoners.

Militant Palestinians and Lebanese know that a captured Israeli soldier or civilian is either a cause of conflict or a valuable bargaining chip for prisoner exchange.

Some recent cases of journalists newly sentenced to jail terms because of these broad offences typically reserved for political prisoners, include Afarin Chitzaz, Ehsan Mazandarani and Saman Sadarzaee, all of whom were writing for publications sympathetic to the Rouhani administration.