Posted on 12/27/2004 11:55:32 AM PST by anotherview
Dec. 27, 2004 18:03 | Updated Dec. 27, 2004 20:19
Police release Palestinian candidate
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Photo: AP
Jerusalem Police on Monday briefly detained Palestinian chairmanship candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouti for questioning as he campaigned for the upcoming Palestinian Authority elections in the Old City of Jerusalem, police said.
Barghouti has a permit to travel through Jerusalem, but not to stay in the capital, Jerusalem Police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo said.
He was later released without being charged, and was escorted to a security checkpoint just outside city limits.
Barghouti, a human rights activist and a distant relative of the imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, is running a distant second to interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is the front-runner in the race, according to Palestinian opinion polls.
His two-hour long detention came just a day after the cabinet approved a series of measures meant to facilitate the January 9 election, including allowing Palestinian candidates to campaign in east Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Police spokeswoman said that Palestinian candidates in the election can campaign in east Jerusalem only if they coordinate their moves in advance with security officials, something Barghouti failed to do.
Israel has allowed Arab residents of east Jerusalem to take part in the vote via an absentee ballot at five city post offices, as was the case in the only previous Palestinian chairmanship elections held in 1996.
The majority of Jerusalem's 230,000 Arab residents are expected to boycott the voting.
Monday's incident marked Barghouti's second run-in with Israeli security officials in the past month. He was previously briefly detained at an army checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Jenin after refusing to submit to a routine car search.
In a separate incident earlier this month, another Palestinian candidate, Bassam Salhi, was briefly detained by police after trying to enter Jerusalem without a permit. At the time, police said that Salhi would be indicted for assaulting a police officer and illegally trying to enter Israel.
That headline worried me that they released Margwan (sp?)
Somehow I think thet mass murderer Marwan Barghouti will rot in jail for a very long time. At least I hope so.
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