Description

Photo:
Moussa Darwish. Published by Maan News

28-year-old Mansour Darwish, beaten by Israeli police after attempting to welcome his cousin home from prison. Published by Maan News
___

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- After being interrogated for several hours by Israeli forces, former Palestinian prisoner Moussa Darwish was freed from Israeli custody on Sunday night.

Darwish was first released from Israeli prison earlier on Sunday after completing a 12-year sentence, but the newly freed man found Israeli intelligence officers waiting for him outside the prison, who immediately redetained him.

Jerusalem Committee for Families of Prisoners head Amjad Abu Asab told Ma'an that Israeli forces had also prevented Darwish's family from going near him, after they had traveled to Ktziot prison in southern Israel to welcome him home.

However, after several hours of interrogation, Israeli forces again released Darwish.

Darwish spent 12 years in jail for his alleged role in a plot to kill Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the leader of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox religious political party in Israel.

A resident of the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, Darwish was detained in March 2005, and was convicted the following December in the framework of a plea bargain in which he admitted that he had planned to murder the prominent rabbi, Israeli news site Ynet reported at the time.

Asab noted in his statement Sunday that Darwish’s brother Majd Darwish was detained last week and sentenced to six months in administrative detention, Israel’s widely condemned policy of internment without trial or charge based on undisclosed evidence.

According to Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer, some 6,500 Palestinians were held in Israeli custody as of January, 536 of whom were in administrative detention.
_____

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Five Palestinians said they were pulled from their vehicles, violently assaulted, and detained by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem, after returning home from southern Israel where they had attempted to welcome home their relative who had just been released from Israeli prison.

Moussa Darwish was set to be released from Ktziot prison in the Negev region on Sunday after completing a 12-year sentence, but the newly freed man found Israeli intelligence officers waiting for him outside the prison, who immediately redetained him.

Israeli forces prevented the group of family and friends from approaching Darwish, after they had traveled from Issawiya in East Jerusalem and arrived to the prison.

They were notified that Darwish had been taken to Israel’s Russian Compound detention center back in West Jerusalem for interrogation. After several hours, Israeli forces again released Darwish.

However, Darwish’s friends and relatives -- Ahmad Darwish, 52, Ibrahim Darwish, 42, Mansour Darwish, 28, Muhammad Ubeid, 25, and Saeb Dirbas, 23 -- said that upon their return to Jerusalem, their three vehicles were "ambushed" by Israeli forces who had set up a flying checkpoint at the entrance to the city.

In an interview with Ma’an on Wednesday, Mansour Darwish, the former prisoner's cousin, said that their group encountered a crippling traffic jam caused by the checkpoint.

"When we tried to pass the checkpoint, our cars were stopped one after the other. Without even asking for our IDs or driving licenses, they made us step outside, and officers from the Israeli police special Yasam unit started to beat us violently -- and we had no idea why."

Mansour highlighted that Israeli forces were heavily deployed in and around the checkpoint while police punched and kicked the five men in the face, chest, behind the ears, and other sensitive areas, also beating them with rifle butts and batons.