JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: ISRAEL MAY FREE PALESTINIAN UPRISING LEADER MARWAN BARGHOUTHI IN A HIZBOLLAH PRISON EXCHANGE

Record ID: 400631

  • Title: JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: ISRAEL MAY FREE PALESTINIAN UPRISING LEADER MARWAN BARGHOUTHI IN A HIZBOLLAH PRISON EXCHANGE
  • Date: 22nd September 2003
  • Summary: (U3) VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MIDEAST (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV PALESTINIAN UPRISING LEADER MARWAN BARGHOUTHI ATTENDING DEMO 0.06 2. LV/MCU OF BARGHOUTHI SPEAKING TO CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.19 3. SV/MCU OF BARGHOUTHI BEING ARRESTED BY ISRAELI TROOPS (6 SHOTS) 0.39 4. LV BARGHOUTHI BEING TRIED IN ISRAELI HIGH COURT/BARGHOUTHI HANDCUFFE
  • Embargoed: 7th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MIDEAST
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAZ1QRT7HYE2Y73MVV5YGTHCL7
  • Story Text: Israel may free Palestinian uprising leader Marwan
    Barghouthi in a Hizbollah prisoner exchange.




    Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi may be
    a bargaining chip for a prisoner exchange deal with the
    Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah.

    Barghouthi, West Bank leader of Palestinian President
    Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, is on trial in Israel
    charged with orchestrating killings of 26 Israelis in a
    Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000. He
    denies involvement in violence.

    An Israeli security source told Reuters a deal
    involving hundreds of prisoners, mainly Palestinians, was
    "in the making".

    With German mediation, Israel has been negotiating with
    Hizbollah for the release of an Israeli businessman and the
    bodies of three soldiers believed to have died after
    capture on the Lebanese frontier three years ago.

    Israel has also sought information at least on the fate
    of Israeli air force navigator Ron Arad, who was shot down
    over Israeli-occupied south Lebanon in 1986. Israeli forces
    withdrew from the area in May 2000.

    Hizbollah has sought the release of 15 Lebanese
    including guerrilla leaders Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and
    Mustafa Dirani, seized by Israel in 1989 and 1994 as
    bargaining chips for Arad, as well as Palestinians, Syrians
    and Jordanians held by Israel.

    Khader Shkerat, Barghouthi's attorney, expressed
    optimism on the possible release of the Palestinian leader.

    Shkerat believed Hizbollah committed itself to the release
    of Barghouthi as a condition to carry out the prisoner
    exchange.

    "We are sure and confident that Hizbollah will not
    conclude the deal without the release of Marwan
    (Barghouthi). We are confident that Hizbollah committed
    himself already, that Marwan is on the top list of any deal
    that is going to be with Israel," Shkerat told Reuters on
    Monday (September 22).

    A senior official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry later
    denied there were any plans to free Barghouthi, citing a
    ruling by the state attorney-general barring the release of
    a suspect who is standing trial.

    A senior Palestinian security official said
    Barghouthi's name was on a list of prisoners to be released
    and, barring hitches, a prisoner swap could go ahead in
    about two weeks' time.

    Barghouthi's wife, Fadwa Barghouthi, said it would be a
    dream come true that her husband return home after being
    held in Israeli custody for almost three years.

    "This my dream and my kids dream, that Marwan will be
    back to live with us, we hope that what they are saying
    about the (prisoners) exchange and the dream will be true,
    and Marwan will be back to live with us as any family who
    live a normal live," Barghouthi said from her home in the
    West Bank city of Ramallah.






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