Israel court jails Palestinian jailbreakers for five years

An Israeli court yesterday sentenced six Palestinian inmates to five years in prison for escaping from Gilboa Prison last September.

According to Al Jazeera, the judge ruled that the sentence took into account the fact that the prison break paralysed the nation for days, the costs it took to recapture the inmates and the harm to public security caused by having prisoners who had been handed life terms and convicted of serious crimes escape.

The five-year sentences will be added to the prison terms the prisoners are already serving.

Four other inmates charged with assisting the men escape had four years added to their jail terms and were fined 2,000 shekels ($600) each.

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Along with the prison time, the six were hit with eight-month suspended sentences and fined 5,000 shekels ($1,500) each, reported the Times of Israel.

A spokesman for Hamas condemned the new sentences as “a continuation of the aggression and violations of the occupation against our heroic prisoners.”

Six Palestinian inmates tunnelled out of the high-security Gilboa Prison in northern Israel on 6 September. Israeli forces managed to capture four of them after a large-scale manhunt.

Following their recapture, the prisoners were severely beaten and left alone without treatment, and were subject to harsh and humiliating interrogation.