ISRAEL: Palestinian detainee is seen for the first time since his alleged abduction from the Ukraine

Record ID: 396031

  • Title: ISRAEL: Palestinian detainee is seen for the first time since his alleged abduction from the Ukraine
  • Date: 1st April 2011
  • Summary: PETAH TIKVA, ISRAEL (MARCH 31, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF COURT PEOPLE WAITING TO ENTER COURT HOUSE DEFENCE LAWYER FOR DIRAR ABU SISI ENTERING COURT ISRAELI POLICE BRINGING ABU SISI INTO COURT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DIRAR ABU SISI, DETAINED PALESTINIAN ENGINEER SAYING "I do not have any problem, I am a doctor of engineering, responsible at the electricity station only
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel, Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA532HDPZ2PFD32YL4WE4ZSFXTN
  • Story Text: A Palestinian engineer under arrest in Israel was allowed on Thursday (March 31) to speak publicly for the first time since his alleged abduction from Ukraine, saying he knew nothing about an Israeli soldier held by Hamas in Gaza.
    "They kidnapped me from Ukraine," Abu Sisi said, without identifying his abductors. His family has accused Israel's Mossad intelligence service of grabbing him.
    "I don't know anything about Shalit," Abu Sisi, wearing brown prison garb and addressing television cameras and reporters, said in English at the opening of a remand hearing in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.
    Lawyers for Dirar Abu Sisi had accused Israel of trying to concoct charges against the Gaza resident, linking his arrest to efforts to gather intelligence on the enclave's Hamas rulers and Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by militants in 2006.
    "This is another remand hearing for Derar Abu Sisi. There is a declaration today that charges will be submitted early next week," said Abu Sisi's lawyer, Smadar Bar-Natan.
    Prosecutors told the court, which has allowed only a few details to be reported about the case, that an indictment would be filed next week. Abu Sisi's lawyers said his client, who Israel alleges belongs to Hamas, had committed no crime.
    Relatives of Abu Sisi, an engineer and manager of the main power plant in Gaza, say he was seized in February by Israeli agents while aboard a train in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities say the disappearance is under investigation.
    Abu Sisi's wife is Ukrainian and she said her husband had gone to Ukraine to apply for citizenship and move the family there.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (March 30) that Abu Sisi "is a Hamas man" and had provided valuable information, which the Israeli leader did not specify. Sources in Gaza have said he was not known to have political affiliations to Hamas.
    Defence Minister Ehud Barak, speaking on Israel Radio while the hearing was under way, said Abu Sisi "did not guard (Shalit) or anything like that, but he is a person who has serious information about what is going on inside Hamas".
    In Kiev, Mohammed al-Assad, the Palestinian envoy in Ukraine, told a news conference that Abu Sisi "was not a member of any organisation".
    Describing Abu Sisi's disappearance as a "terrible act of piracy", Assad urged Ukrainian authorities to put pressure on Israel to ensure his safe return to Ukraine.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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