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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian man was released from custody in the United States on Friday after he served 20 years, in addition to nine years he served in Greece, on “charges of resisting the Israeli occupation outside Palestinian soil,” the Palestinan Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said.

PPS said in a statement, released Saturday, that 76-year-old Rashid Hammad Zghari from al-Duheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, was released from US custody after serving 20 years.

The statement added that Zghari, who is married with two children, had been jailed for nine years in Greece before he was moved to US jails. He was arrested in Greece in 1987.

Zghari was deported to Mauritania immediately after he was released.

In Mauritania, he was welcomed by the Palestinian ambassador Thiab al-Louh and director of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) intelligence office in Mauritania, Raed Ramadan.

The statement added that chief of the Palestinian Authority's general intelligence Majid Faraj was involved in negotiations with US officials for three years before they agreed to release Zghari.