GAZA/WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL HAS RELEASED A SENIOR PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICIAL SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN ATTACKS ON ISRAELIS
Record ID:
400297
GAZA/WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL HAS RELEASED A SENIOR PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICIAL SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN ATTACKS ON ISRAELIS
- Title: GAZA/WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL HAS RELEASED A SENIOR PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICIAL SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN ATTACKS ON ISRAELIS
- Date: 3rd July 2003
- Summary: (EU) GAZA (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV/CU/SV/LV OF EREZ CROSSING (5 SHOTS) 0.36 2. MCU COLONEL SULEIMAN ABU MUTLAQ AT EREZ CROSSING AFTER BEING RELEASED FROM AN ISRAELI DETENTION CAMP, TALKING ON MOBILE, KISSING FRIENDS 0.47 3. SV MUTLAQ WITH FRIENDS 0.51 4. MCU (Arabic) MUTLAQ SAYING: "I was kidnapped at Kissufim
- Embargoed: 18th July 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GAZA/ OFER CAMP, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/ JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA98ZLGPAVKH7V7RV955RYOO2PQ
- Story Text: Israel has released a senior Palestinian security
official suspected of involvement in attacks on Israelis.
Colonel Suleiman Abu Mutlaq crossed the Erez checkpoint into
Gaza where he was met by a crowd of family and friends. His
release was a further gesture towards implementing a
U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.
Colonel Suleiman Abu Mutlaq was released from a
detention centre in southern Israel on Thursday afternoon
(July 3) and was greeted by a throng of family and friends.
He called his apprehension by Israel a "political
kidnapping."
"I was kidnapped at Kissufim junction. I regard what
happened as a political kidnapping. Israeli interrogators had
interrogated me over political issues. They have been trying
to convict the Palestinian Authority and Preventive Security
of carrying out attacks. Most of the time, I was either in
interrogation or in solitary confinement."
Abu Mutlaq, a senior member of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, is considered the third most
senior member of the Gaza Preventive Security Forces.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas called for Israel
to free Palestinian prisoners during talks with Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday and has said any failure to
do so would destroy a ceasefire declared by militant groups.
There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners jailed
throughout Israel. Some have been charged and convicted of
attacks against Israelis. Others have not been charged at all
but remain confined. Those captives are known as
"administrative" prisoners.
Zaed Aen told Reuters he was held for 14 months without
charges after he was found in the home of Marwan Barghouti,
the head of the Tanzim militant group.
Aen said life at the administrative detention camps was
not "humanitarian."
Hadih Brghati said that she has two sons who are jailed by
Israel. One is an "administrative" prisoner the other is
awaiting trial.
"Since a year and two months we don't see him. And his
health situation is bad as his lawyer says. We can't ever see
him," Brghati said of one of her sons.
Mia Hasenson of Amnesty International told Reuters that
the detention of "administrative" prisoners has become a
problem since the Intifada began.
"Over the last year in 2002, there have been more than
1,900 arrests of Palestinians under administrative detainees
over a period of up to a year. These detainees have been
denied the right to trial, the right to an attorney, the right
to appeal. And all these constitute a basic violation of human
rights, a violation of international humanitarian law and
basic democratic principles," Hasenson said.
Israel has said that it will release some of its
Palestinian "administrative" prisoners following Tuesday's
(July 1) meeting although it has not given an indication of
how many.
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