Wednesday, January 27, 1999 15:39
Amnesty Calls Upon Israel to Release "Bargaining
Chips"
(IsraelWire-1/27-15:39 -IST) "The use of 10 Lebanese prisoners
as 'bargaining chips' must come to an end, Amnesty International
said, calling on Israel's Supreme Court to reverse its November
1997 ruling that it was legal to hold them as hostages.
'This is the last chance for the Supreme Court to reject its
decision, unprecedented in the world, that it is legal for a state
to engage in hostage-taking,' Amnesty International said.
'Some of these men are being held beyond their prison terms, in
flagrant violation of international law. For example, Bilal 'Abd
al-Husayn Dakrub has been held for over ten years beyond his
release date,' the organization continued.
The Israeli government is holding 21 Lebanese prisoners in
exchange for the release of, or information on, Israeli soldiers
who are listed as missing in action in Lebanon. On 27th of January
a nine-judge panel of Israel's Supreme Court will rehear an appeal
from 10 of these detainees against their continued detention. The
hearing will take place behind closed doors.
Bilal 'Abd al-Husayn Dakrub, 'Ali Husayn 'Ammar, Ahmad Muhsen
'Ammar, Kamal Muhammad Rizq, Hasan Sadr al-Din Hijazi, 'Abd
al-Hasan Hasan Surur, 'Abbas Hasan Surur, Ahmad Hasan Surur, Yusef
Ya'qub Surur and Husayn Fahad Daqduq were sentenced to varying
terms of imprisonment on various charges by Israeli military
courts in the 1980s.
The 10 detainees have been held in near-complete isolation
since 1996, only being granted access to their lawyer and
delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In 1997 Ahmad Muhsen Ammar wrote to an Amnesty International
group: 'We have been removed from the world. We cannot see our
families ... or any organization which can help us. We are only
able to see people from the Red Cross. When I received a photo of
my brothers and sisters I didn't recognize them as they had all
grown. The child had become a young man, and the young man had
aged and had white hair. ... The civil war ,in Lebanon, has
finished and many big changes have taken place. It is now so
different I feel I don?t know my country any more - only the
country of the past. I was only 19 when I went into prison and now
I am 30.' "
Source:
http://www.israelwire.com/New/990127/99012724.html
