AG says law can distinguish between terror convicts and other prisoners

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has given his legal blessing to a bill that would grant early release to some prisoners in Israeli jails, but not terror convicts, drawing a legal distinction between them and all other prisoners.

Mandelblit on Tuesday presented a legal opinion saying Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s bid to make such a distinction would be defensible in the High Court of Justice.

The Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee was set to meet Tuesday to discuss a bill that would extend the period of time in which authorities can grant prisoners early release for administrative reasons, following a High Court of Justice ruling that prisoners should be released due to lack of room in jails.

Mandelblit’s decision means terror convicts will be exempt from that law. Families of terror victims had voiced concern that the law would see the killers of their loved ones freed.

There has been strong criticism in Israel of previous prisoner swaps in which hundreds and even thousands of Palestinian terror convicts were released in exchange for a single Israeli soldier or civilian, or several.

In his legal opinion, Mandelblit said that while the distinction “raises constitutional difficulties, it can’t be said that it is illegal,” dismissing claims that it violates international law.

“A distinction can be drawn between all criminal prisoners and the security prisoners, based on the special characteristics of security crime,” Mandelblit wrote, adding that “prisoners don’t have a designated right to administrative release.”

The opinion was based on an anti-terror law passed in 2016, which set stringent punishments for terrorists and members of terror organizations.

Erdan welcomed the legal opinion, saying in a statement that “reprehensible terrorists must pay a heavy price for their actions, and therefore I opposed any shortening of the prison time for them and their accomplices and demanded that the law include their exemption. I’m happy the attorney general backs that stance.”