File photo of Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Dweik. Photo Courtesy: AFP.
Tue-Jun 23, 2009
Ramallah (West Bank) / Agence France-Presse
Israel on Tuesday released the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Dweik, after nearly three years in prison, his lawyer said.
"He was freed from the Hadarim prison (near Tel Aviv) and he is on his way toward the Shaer Ephraim checkpoint" in the north of the occupied West Bank, Fadi Qawasmeh toldAFP.
An Israeli prisoner services spokesman confirmed that the 60-year-old Dweik had been released.
The move comes after a military tribunal at the Ofer military base near the main West Bank city of Ramallah rejected an application by prosecutors to keep Dweik behind bars after his three-year sentence ran out.
Dweik was elected speaker in February 2006, a month after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in a surprise rout of the long dominant Fatah party of president Mahmud Abbas.
He was arrested by Israeli security forces at his Ramallah home in August 2006 amid a West Bank crackdown on Hamas in which more than 60 elected officials were detained, including a third of the then government and more than two dozen MPs.
Some were later released, but at least 35 remain in custody. The crackdown came after Hamas and other Gaza militants seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006
"He was freed from the Hadarim prison (near Tel Aviv) and he is on his way toward the Shaer Ephraim checkpoint" in the north of the occupied West Bank, Fadi Qawasmeh toldAFP.
An Israeli prisoner services spokesman confirmed that the 60-year-old Dweik had been released.
The move comes after a military tribunal at the Ofer military base near the main West Bank city of Ramallah rejected an application by prosecutors to keep Dweik behind bars after his three-year sentence ran out.
Dweik was elected speaker in February 2006, a month after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in a surprise rout of the long dominant Fatah party of president Mahmud Abbas.
He was arrested by Israeli security forces at his Ramallah home in August 2006 amid a West Bank crackdown on Hamas in which more than 60 elected officials were detained, including a third of the then government and more than two dozen MPs.
Some were later released, but at least 35 remain in custody. The crackdown came after Hamas and other Gaza militants seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment