Israel hands 4-year jail term to Palestinian footballer

An Israeli court has sentenced Palestinian footballer Tareq Al-Araj to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of 4,000 shekels ($1,145), the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

According to Asra Media, occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped Al-Araj, a national youth football player and a member of the Jenin Sports Club, on 5 September 2020 at a makeshift checkpoint near Jenin City, and then took him for interrogation to the Petah Tikva detention centre where he stayed for about one and a half months.

The four-year prison sentence was issued after his trial was postponed more than 17 times. He was accused of being a member of a banned group and participating in resistance activities against the occupation state of Israel.

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