ISRAELI COURT REJECTS APPEAL OF 6 SHALIT DEAL PRISONERS FROM JERUSALEM

Al-Quds (Jerusalem), 24 Rabi’ul Awwal 1436/15 January 2015 (MINA)–  An Israeli central court in Nazareth on Wednesday rejected an appeal on behalf of six Jerusalem-area prisoners who were rearrested after they had been freed in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap in 2011.

Speaker of the East Jerusalem committee of prisoners’ families Amjad Abu Asab told Ma’an that the Israeli forces claimed that Alaa al-Din al-Bazyan, Nasser Abed Rabbo, Jamal Abu Salih, Rajab al-Tahhan, Ismail Hijazi and Adnan Maragha had violated the terms of the deal upon which they were freed.

As a result, they were rearrested and the Israeli intelligence decided that they would complete the original lifetime sentences they were serving before they were freed, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The six, along with more than 50 others freed as part of Shalit deal, were rearrested in June 2014 during an Israeli military operation to locate three teenage boys who disappeared near Gush Etzion south of Bethlehem.

Israeli police earlier notified the prisoners’ families that they were being interrogated on charge of membership in a “terror” organization as well as violating the terms of Shalit deal.

However, the families were notified that the case had been closed and that the six won’t be tried because enough evidence was not found.

Surprisingly, the six were sent to a central court in Haifa to be tried in front of a special judicial committee composed of Israeli government officials which decided that they were guilty and must serve the original sentences. (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)