GOLAN HEIGHTS: Syrian prisoner serving longest sentence released from israeli jail.

Record ID: 861084

  • Title: GOLAN HEIGHTS: Syrian prisoner serving longest sentence released from israeli jail.
  • Date: 23rd August 2012
  • Summary: CHILDREN LINING UP THE STREETS WAITING FOR AL-MAQT TO ARRIVE
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA62EAL4DDH88WQSH1QRVIIC00P
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Syrian prisoner held in Israeli prison for 27 years has been set free and returns to a hero's welcome in the occupied Golan Syrian prisoner heHeights.

    Forty five-year-old, Syrian Druze Prisoner Sidki Al-Maqt, has been released on Wednesday (August 22) after spending 27 years in 'Shatta' Israeli prison.
    The Majdal Shams native who was arrested in August 1985 during clashes with Israeli security forces, returned home to the occupied Golan Heights to a hero's welcome.
    Men on horses holding Syrian flags lined up the road leading to downtown Majdal Shams, where many residents including women and children came out to greet Al-Maqt.
    Al-Maqt is considered one of the longest serving prisoners to be released from Israeli prison, he was never publicly charged.
    The Israeli Prison Services, IPS, released a statement in which it said Al-Maqt had been serving time in prison for what they described as military action carried out against the state of Israel.
    Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War. Most of the Syrian Arab inhabitants fled the area during the conflict.
    Syria tried to retake the Golan Heights during the 1973 Middle East war.
    Israel annexed the Golan in 1981, a move not recognized internationally. It gave the Druze there, who today number about 20,000, the option of citizenship. Most rejected it and remained loyal to Syria.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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