Hamas MP Romanein released after four-and-a-half year detention

[ 20/10/2010 - 09:22 AM ]

JERICHO, (PIC)-- Change and Reform bloc representative in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Ali Romanein from the West Bank city of Jericho was released Tuesday night after serving four and a half years in Israeli detention. Romanein is one of the most prominent Hamas activists in Jericho. He was arrested June 26, 2006 and sentenced to four and half years in prison. Six other Hamas representatives in the PLC remain detained in Israeli occupation since the occupation's fierce arrest campaign in wake of the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian resistance factions. The international campaign for the release of MPs in Israeli jails said Israel has “failed miserably in its attempt to get rid of MPs by abducting them ever since they were elected as legal representatives in fair elections.” The campaign congratulated Romanein on his release in a statement it made Tuesday night, calling it a victory for the representatives of the Palestinian people. The campaign added that Israel has not achieved its objectives by taking away the people’s representatives, but only increased the people’s rallying around their representatives. Israel has not prospered in suppressing their positions, for the sake of which they sacrificed years in prison. The imprisonment of elected lawmakers without legal justification is a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. --------- Hamas MP released after 4 years in prison  JERICHO (Ma’an) -- Israeli authorities on Tuesday released a Hamas-affiliated lawmaker who served 54 months in prison. Ali Rumanin of Jericho was seized in 2006 as a bargaining chip following the capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza. Without accusing them of involvement, Israel arrested 45 Hamas lawmakers in the aftermath of the abduction in June 2006. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to release Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouthi in a prisoner swap deal for the captured soldier, a Saudi newspaper reported Tuesday. According to Al-Madina, quoting unnamed sources, a German mediator told Hamas that Barghouthi would be freed but other prisoners on the Islamist movement's list would not. Barghouthi's wife Fadwa told a German anti-nuclear war delegation visiting Ramallah that she too had also received word that her husband would be released in the swap deal. The Fatah leader, convicted in 2004, has been on the list of nearly 1,000 prisoners Hamas hopes to release in exchange for Shalit but the Israeli government has previously refused to concede. Many on the list are high-ranking Palestinian factional leaders. Gilad Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006. Previous talks collapsed when Israel refused Hamas' demand that it released prisoners "with blood on their hands." In early October, an Israeli minister said his government should consider the release of such prisoners if it would secure Shalit's return. The report follows confirmation on Sunday by the Israeli government that talks on the prisoner swap deal have resumed after months of stalemate. However, the soldier's grandfather Zvi Shalit told Army Radio that Netanyahu's claims were false, and that the premier was killing Gilad by failing to secure his freedom, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. On the same day, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said that the German mediator had visited Gaza to discuss a prisoner swap deal, but said no progress had been made on the issue. The visit did not signify a resumption of talks on the deal, Taha said, describing the mediator's visit as "exploratory," in an interview with Ma'an. The mediator brought no new information, he said at the time.