Israel has freed a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank after imprisoning him without trial for 16 months, his son says.
Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of the Palestinian Islamist terror group, was arrested on April 2 last year at his home near Ramallah.
“He is now at home and is in good health,” his son Owais Yousef tells AFP.
Following his arrest, Yousef was handed a six-month detention order that was extended for another six months and then for a further four, his son tells AFP.
The 65-year-old, who has been arrested multiple times, had been released from a previous 10-month term of imprisonment in October 2018.
Israel’s administrative detention system allows the internment of prisoners for renewable periods of up to six months each, without bringing charges.
Israel says the procedure allows authorities to hold suspects and prevent attacks while continuing to gather evidence, but critics and rights groups say the system is abused.
— AFP
Sheikh Hassan Yousef speaks to the media after his release from an Israeli prison in the West Bank city of Ramallah, January 19, 2014 (Majdi Mohammad/AP)
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