Israel okays resistance figure’s ‘conditional release’

JERUSALEM (AA) - An Israeli court on Thursday approved the conditional release of jailed Palestinian resistance icon Raed Salah, according to the latter’s lawyer.

“The decision was made at a hearing held today in the Israeli magistrate’s court in the northern city of Haifa,” lawyer Khaled Zbarqa told Anadolu Agency.

Public prosecutors, however, have appealed the decision, which will likely delay Salah’s release, Zbarqa said.

“The appeal decision will be discussed tomorrow in court,” he added.

In March, the magistrate’s court preliminarily approved Salah’s conditional release, but the decision was overturned following an appeal lodged by the public prosecutor’s office.

The conditions imposed on Salah’s release include a ban on entering his hometown of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, along with other restrictions on his movement.

Last summer, Israeli police arrested Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, before convicting him of “inciting violence” and throwing him into solitary confinement.

In February, a court in the southern city of Beersheba slapped the prominent resistance icon with a further six months in isolation.