Palestinian enters 40th year in Israeli prison: NGO

Former Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, meets with the family of the prisoner Maher Younes, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 11 March 2019. [Prime Minister Office/Apaimages]

A Palestinian man sentenced to life in prison marks his 40th year in detention in an Israeli jail, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Maher Younes, 64, was arrested by Israeli forces in the town of Ara in northern Israel on 18 January, 1983, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), an NGO that advocates for the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The NGO said the Israeli authorities have set Younes’ life sentence at 40 years, meaning that he is serving his last year in prison.

The rights group noted that Israeli authorities had previously refused to include Younes in any prisoner swap deals.

According to the NGO, 25 Palestinians were already languishing in Israeli prisons prior to the signing of the Oslo peace agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel in 1993.

Palestinian NGOs estimate that around 4,600 Palestinian detainees are held in Israeli jails.

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