ISRAEL: ARMY TAKES CHARGE OF 13 LEBANESEE DETAINEES DUE TO BE RELEASED PENDING LAST MINUTE PETITION

Record ID: 398962

  • Title: ISRAEL: ARMY TAKES CHARGE OF 13 LEBANESEE DETAINEES DUE TO BE RELEASED PENDING LAST MINUTE PETITION
  • Date: 19th April 2000
  • Summary: AYALON PRISON, ISRAEL (APRIL 19, 2000) (REUTERS - NO ACCESS ISRAEL) 1. SLV ISRAELI VEHICLE CARRYING LEBANESE PRISONERS EMERGE FROM PRISON 0.10 2. MV LEBANESE PRISONERS INSIDE THE VEHICLE, LOOKING THROUGH WINDOWS AT JOURNALISTS 0.13 3. SLV ANOTHER ISRAELI VEHICLE CARRYING LEBANESE PRISONERS DRIVING PAST CAMERA 0.16 4. MU LEBANESE PR
  • Embargoed: 4th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AYALON PRISON, KISHON PRISON AND NORTHERN REGION, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA2WNBP5N0B6OQ8FE36J1F4V67A
  • Story Text: Israel's army has taken charge of 13 Lebanese
    detainees due to be freed later in the day pending a
    last-minute petition asking Israel's High Court to halt the
    release.

    The prisoners were first transferred out of Ayalon
    prison, in central Israel, before dawn on Wednesday (April
    19).From there, they were driven to Kishon jail in the north
    of the country.

    For the second leg of their journey, the prisoners were
    led out of Kishon on board a bus, their eyes covered and their
    hands bound.Newspapers covered the windows of the bus as they
    drove to the Israel-Lebanon border to await the court's
    ruling.

    Police sat on the bus with the detainees while military
    vehicles accompanied the prisoners on their 90-minute trip to
    the frontier.

    Once at the border, the thirteen men remained on the bus.

    The prisoners have been held in detention for almost a decade.

    They were permitted the occasional visit to a washroom on the
    base as they waited for the decision of Israel's High Court.

    The family of missing airforce navigator Ron Arad
    submitted a petition late on Tuesday (April 18) in an effort
    to bypass last weeks landmark High Court ruling that it is
    illegal for Israel to hold prisoners in the hope of swapping
    them for missing soldiers.

    The prisoner release has been cancelled twice since last
    weeks decision.On Monday (April 17), the court rejected a
    petition asking for a panel of 13 judges to review the ruling.

    If the court rejects the Arad familys challenge ,
    International Red Cross officials will transfer the detainees
    across the Lebanese border to their families and freedom.

    Arad's plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and he was
    captured by Amal guerrillas fighting, along with the
    Iranian-back Hizbollah organisation, against Israel's 22-year
    occupation of a self-declared security zone in south Lebanon.

    On Monday, Israel told the United Nations that it would
    complete a withdrawal from the Lebanon security zone by July
    7.


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