- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL AGREES TO FREE ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
- Date: 20th December 2004
- Summary: (W4) JERUSALEM (DECEMBER 19, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. MV RA'ANAN GISSIN, SENIOR AIDE TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON, WALKING PAST CAMERA; WIDE OF GISSIN SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST 0.09 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GISSIN SAYING "Today the cabinet, sitting as a ministerial committee, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, reviewed the list that was submit
- Embargoed: 4th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA44WFMYP9GMR6UCS0HDBFY37PG
- Story Text: Israel agrees to free 170 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has agreed to free 170 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill
gesture to Egypt for freeing a convicted Israeli spy and to show goodwill
ahead of a Palestinian election, officials said on Sunday (December 19).
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet gave its approval in principle
last week. His office said the prisoners would be released in days.
Israel had said that it would not free prisoners with "blood on
their hands", those who had been jailed for planning or carrying out
attacks that killed Israelis.
"Today the cabinet, sitting as a ministerial committee, headed by
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, reviewed the list that was submitted by the
Israel Security Agency. This list consists of prisoners which answer to the
parameters that were in the first prisoner release with Abu Mazen last July so
because of that we could expedite the decision and move very quickly to
approve the release of at least 170 prisoners, mainly those who don't have
blood on their hands, who answer the criteria, who are not standing trial, who
are not standing pending investigations," Ra'anan Gissin, a senior aide
to Sharon said.
Israel Radio said that 120 of the prisoners to be freed were from the
dominant Fatah movement. The others were caught inside Israel illegally.
It said the Shin Bet domestic security service had ruled out the
release of a further 30 Islamist prisoners whose names had originally been
proposed.
The Islamists are major political rivals to Abbas.
The freeing of Palestinian prisoners had also been expected as a
gesture to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who granted an early release this
month to Azzam Azzam, an Israeli businessman jailed as a spy. Israel denied
the espionage charges.
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