Sheikh Raed Salah stalked, ambushed ahead of arrest

[ 22/02/2011 - 09:41 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in 1948-occupied Palestine's northern branch, was arrested in Jerusalem on Tuesday just an hour after leaving a festival held in the city's Silwan district, the Aqsa foundation reported.

Islamic Movement advisor Ali Abu Sheikha said: ”I was with Sheikh Raed Salah in a sit-in tent at Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan. Immediately after the end of the festival program at the camp marking the passage of two years since holding a sit-in at the Bustan neighborhood, we headed directly back to the city of Umm al-Faham, when we encountered midway intelligence and police vehicles in the middle of the road in the Sheikh Jarrah area. A number of intelligence men stepped out and immediately removed Salah from the car after checking our identification cards, then placed Salah in an intelligence vehicle and arrested him in the presence of armed Israeli forces. We do not know where Salah is being detained.”

"The arrest resembled a kidnapping, as we were apparently stalked and ambushed from the middle of the road,” Abu Sheikha added.

Attorney Khalid Zabariqa, director of the Jerusalem Foundation for Development, is following Salah's arrest. He said police have yet refused to reveal where Salah is being detained.

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