JERUSALEM: Israeli police arrested the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem for the second time in as many months, a spokesman said Sunday, after reports of an investigation related to a land sale.
Adnan Gheith was arrested in east Jerusalem overnight, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement, without providing further details.
Israeli security forces would not comment beyond saying the arrest had to do with money-related issues.
Gheith will be brought for a remand hearing in the Jerusalem magistrate’s court later in the day and details of the allegations against him may be released then.
On Oct. 20, Gheith was detained for two days of questioning before being released, with Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency saying it was over “illegal activity by the (Palestinian Authority) in Jerusalem.”
He was also taken for questioning a number of times in recent weeks and his office was raided on November 4.
Israeli media have reported that authorities have been investigating the governor following the PA’s arrest of a man in October accused of being involved in selling property in east Jerusalem to a Jewish buyer.
Such sales are considered treasonous among Palestinians concerned with Israeli settlers buying property in east Jerusalem.
But among Israelis, there have been calls for authorities to free the man arrested by the PA over the sale.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that the man is a Palestinian with US citizenship.
Fuad Hallaq, a senior adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jerusalem, told AFP that he believed the latest arrest was part of Israeli efforts to pressure the Palestinian leadership to release the man.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
It considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Palestinian Authority activities are barred from Jerusalem by Israel.
As a result, the PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in Al-Ram, just on the other side of Israel’s separation wall from Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.
Israel rearrests Palestinian Jerusalem governor
Israel rearrests Palestinian Jerusalem governor
- Gheith will be brought for a remand hearing in the Jerusalem magistrate’s court later in the day and details of the allegations against him may be released then
- On Oct. 20, Gheith was detained for two days of questioning before being released
Tunisia court reduces ex-PM’s jail term over terror charges
- Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
- An overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Bouthelja said
TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court has reduced the prison sentence of former prime minister Ali Larayedh by a decade to 24 years after he was found guilty of terrorism charges, his lawyer said Friday.
Since his arrest in late 2022, Larayedh has denied the charges that he helped send militant fighters to Iraq and Syria, and his lawyers have branded the case as politically motivated.
Last year, the former premier was sentenced to 34 years in prison. However, an overnight ruling from an appeals court reduced the 70-year-old’s term to 24 years, his defense lawyer Oussama Bouthelja told AFP.
Larayedh was prime minister from 2013 to 2014. He was a leader in the Islamist party Ennahdha, which briefly governed Tunisia following a popular uprising in 2011 that launched the Arab Spring.
He is a critic of President Kais Saied.
Others prosecuted in the case included former security officials and a spokesman for Ansar Al-Sharia, a group Tunisia designated a terrorist organization in 2013 while Larayedh was prime minister.
The appeals court reduced the sentences of several others in the case, with prison terms now ranging from three to 24 years.
Ennahdha played a key role in Tunisian politics for years before its leader Rached Ghannouchi was hit with multiple prison terms, which include a 22-year sentence on charges of plotting against state security.
Larayedh had already spent 15 years in prison, including 10 in solitary confinement, for plotting against the state under longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was toppled during the Arab Spring.
The UN said about 5,500 Tunisians fought with militant groups including the Daesh in Iraq, Syria and Libya between 2011 and 2016.
