[ 01/04/2010 - 08:45 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan categorically denied that the release of prisoner Saleh Al-Aroori and his travel to Damascus was part of the swap deal, affirming that the deal is still stalled because of Israel’s intransigent attitude.
“I should make it clear that there is nothing new regarding the prisoner swap deal which was hampered by the [Israeli] occupation, so there is no progress in the deal,” Hamdan said in a press statement published on Wednesday by Quds Press.
The Hamas official accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah of working on aborting the swap deal.
“I believe that some parties [in the PA] were concerned about the prospects for the success of the deal and did not want it to succeed; they also demanded not to release specific names,” he underlined.
Director of Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies Fouad Al-Khafsh also denied news reports claiming that prisoner Aroori was released in the context of a swap deal between Israel and Hamas.
In a press release, Khafsh stated that Aroori was released after he lodged many appeals with the Israeli military court against his administrative detention without leveling any charge against him.
He added that every time, the Israeli military court turned down his appeals and told him that he could be released from prison if he accepted to be exiled outside occupied Palestine, the thing which was rejected by Aroori, but lately his lawyer reached a formula for his release, that were accepted by both parties, stipulating that he would be allowed to return to his family and home for a while before allowing him to travel abroad in order to complete his higher studies.
In another context, the director of Ahrar center urged Palestinian officials in charge of the prisoner swap deal to warn Israel that every month its soldier Gilad Shalit spends in captivity would prompt his captors to change and increase their demands for his release.
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment