MIDDLE EAST: Salah Hamouri, Franco-Palestinian prisoner freed from Israeli jail in exchange deal, says his government invested more efforts in releasing Gilad Shalit, kidnapped Israeli-French soldier, than in securing his own release

Record ID: 512408

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Salah Hamouri, Franco-Palestinian prisoner freed from Israeli jail in exchange deal, says his government invested more efforts in releasing Gilad Shalit, kidnapped Israeli-French soldier, than in securing his own release
  • Date: 20th December 2011
  • Summary: ABU MUTLAK SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE SIGN READING "WE WILL NEVER FORGET THE PRISONERS", WITH PICTURE OF HAMAS MILITANT FATAH AND PALESTINIAN FLAGS STREET VIEW
  • Embargoed: 4th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8L8FHP98YYJRKX1TWH0A8RM2
  • Story Text: Freed Palestinian-French prisoner Salah Hamouri brought home in the second stage of a deal with Hamas on Sunday (December 18), told Reuters he was disappointed by the lack of efforts by the French government to release him and his fellow prisoners.
    In an interview in his West Bank home, Hamouri, convicted for plotting to assassinate ultra-orthodox leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said that relations between the Israeli and French government were the cause of the alleged discrimination.
    "Unfortunately me and my family felt discriminated against by the way the French government dealt with my case, and the cause of the (Palestinian) prisoners. This discrimination was caused by the relations between the French and Israeli governments."
    Hamouri, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has been arrested in 2005 for being a member of the group, and for planning to assassinate Yosef, a mentor to Shas, the powerful religious party that is a junior partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative coalition government.
    Yosef, the influential 89-year-old rabbi, called for the death of Palestinians last August saying God should strike the Palestinians and President Mahmoud Abbas with a plague.
    Hamouri is often compared with Gilad Shalit, also a French citizen, who spent five years in Hamas captivity, but whose campaign was significantly louder.
    Hamouri's French mother Denis Hamouri-Guidoux, who campaigned for his release in France for years, eventually secured a letter sent from French President Nicholas Sarkozy to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to release Hamouri, who agreed, pending a pardon from Yosef, which he granted.
    "There was too much difference between the two cases - the Gilad Shalit case and Salah's case. There were always differences but in France we worked with the civil society and parliament association who were really helpful to Salah. They were applying pressure on the French government to give the same priority to both cases," Hamouri's mother told Reuters television.
    Hamouri, whose term officially ended on November 28, would have been freed in March. He says the pressure exerted by rights and leftists French groups have ultimately brought about his release.
    A second-year university student at the Bethlehem University when he got arrested, Hamouri said that he would like to finish his studies in a local university or in France. When asked if he regrets his alleged intentions, the twenty-six year-old who spent seven years in prison said he is content with his life choices.
    Another Palestinian released on Sunday's exchange was Hamdan Abu Mutlak from the Gazan town of Khan Younis.
    Surrounded by his family members on Monday (December 19), Abu Mutlak vowed not to forget 5,000 Palestinian prisoners still serving their sentences in Israeli prisons.
    "I am so happy coming back because I can see my mother today. But still I feel sad because around 5,000 prisoners are still in jail, long term prisoners weren't get freed yet. Another 5,000 prisoners can't be with their families and some of their family members can't visit them. Also the ill prisoners in Ramle prison are in a hospital that is not suitable even for camels," said Mutlak Abu Mutlak has been arrested by Israeli forces in 2006 and convicted of involvement in attacks on Israeli soldiers during fire exchanges after the kidnapping of Shalit.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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