Recaptured Palestinian escapee: ‘I will seek freedom again’

Palestinian escapee Yaqoub Qadri, one of the six escapees who escaped from a from a high-security Israeli Gilboa prison, is surrounded by Israeli police officers during his trial at the magistrates’ court in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, on 11 September 2021, following his recapture. [ Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency ]

Palestinian prisoner Yaqoub Qadri, who was among the four Gilboa Prison escapees to be recaptured, pledged to seek freedom again, Safa news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to lawyer Hanan Al Khatib, Qadri said: “The five days I spent in the open air of Palestine without restrictions were the best of my life.”

The lawyer also reported him saying he saw children during his freedom and kissed one of them. “That was the most beautiful thing to happen to me,” he said.

He added that he ate figs and oranges from the fields he passed through.

Qadri is now being held in isolation in a small cell which is two metres by one metre and which does not meet his basic needs. “He only has a blanket,” Al Khatib said.

She pointed out that he has been subject to continuous psychological torture.

READ: Palestinian escapee recaptured and ‘tortured’

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