http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=43286&mador=1
Ha'aretz, March 29, 1999
Further release of Palestinian
prisoners expected tomorrow
No prisoners with 'blood on their hands' will be set free
By David Makovsky and Amira Hass, Ha'aretz
Correspondents
Arrangements are expected to be finalized today for
Israel to release two dozen Palestinians prisoners
tomorrow, officials close to the release say.
"There will be a prisoner release before Pesach, and
it won't be large," an official in the Prime
Minister's Office said. The official said that none
of those released have "blood on their hands",
meaning their were not involved in an attack in
which people were killed or injured, and none are
members of Hamas.
The released prisoners may include petty criminals,
such as car thieves. If it does, Palestinian
authorities are likely to complain, as they have in
the past when prisoners released did not include
those imprisoned for what the Palestinians call
"political offenses."
If the release that took place on the eve of Ramadan
is any indication, the prisoners being released are
likely to be those on the verge of completing their
sentences anyway.
Under the Wye agreement, Israel was scheduled to
release 750 prisoners over a 12-week period. U.S.
officials say that Israel has released only a third
of this number.
Minister of Public Security Avigdor Kahalani
prepared the list of those to be released. There
were preliminary indications that the list would
reach 100 names, but it has apparently been pared
back significantly. Originally, the release was
scheduled for the eve of the Moslem holiday of Id
el-Adha, but it did not occur on time, apparently
due to logistical problems.
Meanwhile, during the cabinet meeting yesterday,
Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed a Ha'aretz
report yesterday that the United States has said
that Israel does not have to carry out the second
pullback from the West Bank until the Palestinians
fulfill their commitments.
Meanwhile, in the Palestinian Authority prison in
Nablus, nine Palestinians who have been detained for
more than a year and a half without being charged or
tried were released on Saturday, according to a
Palestinian official. The nine, who come from
Nablus, Kalkilya and Tulkarm, are considered to be
affiliated with the Islamic opposition.
Prison director Mahmoud Jibarin said the nine had
been released because investigation of their files
had been completed and also to mark the Ramadan
holiday.
The nine are part of a group of 43 Palestinian
prisoners who had petitioned the Palestinian High
Court of Justice against their detention. The
Palestinian court earlier this month ordered
authorities to either charge the prisoners or
release them "within 10 days." The rest of the group
remains in detention and it is not clear when they
will be released. All of the group were arrested in
September 1997 after suicide bombings in Jerusalem's
central Mahane Yehuda market and the city's Ben
Yehuda pedestrian mall, which were carried out to
coincide with a visit in the region by U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
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