Families stage Al-Khalil sit-in demanding release of political prisoners

[ 10/05/2011 - 08:14 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The families of political prisoners in Al-Khalil staged Tuesday a sit-in downtown to protest continued detention of their relatives after the signing of the Fatah-Hamas unity deal.

They called on the West Bank security services to comply with what was agreed on according to the truce and to release their relatives.

Dr. Aziz Dweik, Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, participated in the protest along with other PLC members and the wives and relatives of West Bank political prisoners.

The protestors demanded the release of the prisoners and mothers and children raised banners.

Some of the most prominent local and global media channels were present and recorded interviews with the families, as security services arrived with heavy presence to film participants.

The families said in a press statement that morning that there are more than 50 political prisoners from Al-Khalil held in prisons in Al-Khalil, Al-Dhahiriyya, and Jericho. Some of them have already been ruled as free men by the courts.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority security services continue to run a campaign targeting resistance supporters in the West Bank after the agreement signed last Wednesday allowing for a plural government.

Those services arrested most recently Adil Fawzi Odeh, a renowned caligrapher who helped scribe one of the world's largest Qurans, after raiding his home in Nablus.

Several others, including the 18-year-old son of imprisoned Palestinian leader Jamal Abul-Heija and university students, were summoned by the same agencies for questioning in Nablus, Tulkarem and Jenin.

The relatives of Palestinians still held in Egyptian prisons held a sit-in the same day in Gaza.

They called on the recipients of power in Egypt after the toppling of the former regime to turn the pages of the issue of Palestinians detained there as they protested near the closed Egyptian embassy.

There are still around 20 such prisoners being detained in Egypt, although dozens were released following the change of regime.

Six of the prisoners went missing under the rule of the former regime, as no one has known their whereabouts for more than three years.

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