Israel releases Barghouthi's son from jail
Source: Reuters
(Adds legal details) QALANDIYA, West Bank, March 23 (Reuters) - Israel released on bail on Friday the jailed son of Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is himself serving a life prison sentence. Qassam Barghouthi, a student, was arrested in late 2003 after crossing from Jordan into the occupied West Bank. Israeli security officials accused him of complicity in Palestinian militant attacks, a charge his lawyer denied. An Israeli military spokesman said Barghouthi, 22, was freed after being convicted of membership of an outlawed group and serving out his sentence. Israel had said earlier the conviction was for weapons possession. Barghouthi, 22, smiled for reporters as he was driven across Qalandiya checkpoint into the West Bank. "It's a good chance for me to go back to university, to my family," he told Reuters Television in English. "We hope that, inshallah (God willing), my father will be released too." Barghouthi remains on probation as Israeli prosecutors are challenging a military court's decision to acquit him on charges of carrying out a gun ambush and four attempted killings. "Bail was posted, and Barghouthi is required to stay in the area of (the main West Bank city of) Ramallah and report to our Binyamin station once a week," said Orit Steltzer, a spokeswoman for Israel's Prisons Service. Marwan Barghouthi is a legislator from the Palestinian faction Fatah serving five life prison terms in Israel for orchestrating attacks by the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Since Fatah was beaten in Palestinian elections last year by the more hardline Islamist Hamas, there has been recurrent speculation in Israel that Marwan Barghouthi could win clemency in a bid by the Jewish state to foster a new partner for peace.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
