The leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, was released by Israeli authorities today after serving a nine-month sentence on charges of “incitement to commit violence”.
Relatives and supporters of Salah came to Ramon prison this morning to greet him but were told he was not there. Instead, Israeli prison authorities released him at a bus stop in Kiryat Malakhi, a city in the Southern District of Israel.
Salah then took a bus to Tel Aviv where youths recognised him and gave him a ride to the Hassan Bey Mosque near Jaffa.
Salah’s conviction was for a sermon that he gave in the Wadi Joz neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem in 2007, shortly after Israel destroyed the historic Bab El-Magharbeh Bridge leading to the Noble Sanctuary of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli police seek to prosecute Salah on new incitement charges that are pending.