RAMALLAH, October 18, 2011, (WAFA) – The released Ukrainian prisoner, Irena Sarhaneh, could not control herself when she saw her mother and daughter Yasmeen, who came from Ukrania, to see her and share her joy of being released after ten years of detention. Irena broke down in tears, according to witnesses.
Irena told WAFA, “My happiness will not be fulfilled until my husband Ibrahim is released and by my side, as well as my nine prison mates, who are still in the Israeli jails, and suffering greatly from the continuous Israeli oppression measures against them.”
She added, “I will carry the message of the prisoners, detained in Israeli jails, to the entire world, and I will be an ambassador for them where ever I go, and I will stand by my husband till he is released.”
“My joy is incomplete, and I hope to complete it soon when my husband and all the prisoners are released. I have spent the hardest ten years of my life, I underwent great threats by the occupation that kidnapped my daughter, Ghazaleh, and told me that they will hand her over to a Jewish family to raise her and I will never see her. Here I am today, reunited with my daughters and very happy with this reunion,” she said.
Irena, who showed her discontent with the exchange deal said, “We were expecting the release of all female prisoners and all prisoners detained since ten years, but that did not happen. There is a great deal of frustration inside the jails, especially among female prisoners who are left alone after the release of their mates.”
Yasmeen, 12, came with her grandmother to hug Irena, in Ramallah, who could not hold herself in that moment and said, “Is it possible, no way,” thinking that they are in Ukraine and that she would have to travel in order to see them.
Irena sat beside her mother and her two daughters Yasmeen and Ghazaleh, 9, who lived apart from her sister with her detained father’s family, in al-Dheisheh, a refugee camp near Bethlehem.
At last the mother was reunited with her daughters in wait of the release of the paterfamilias, Ibrahim, convicted to six consecutive life sentences.
Irena was arrested from her house ten years ago. She said till this day she has no clue why she was detained, and she always hears the answer “because you helped your husband.”
She was subjected to hard interrogation in Al Maskubieh. She is thinking of filing a lawsuit against Israel in the international and Ukrainian courts.
She has not yet decided whether she is staying in Palestine or going to Ukraine.
“I lived in cell 11 in Sharon prison for nearly ten years, with security prisoners and I was happy, despite the fact that the prison’s administration insisted that they are terrorists and can harm me, but I insisted on living with them and I miss them a lot, although we are happy to be released. I will work so that my prison mates are released to meet them in complete freedom,” Irena said.
She added, “I miss my husband in these moments and I have not seen him since last year; since I was allowed to see him and talk to him through the phone for less than an hour. I was not allowed to see him during my entire ten years of detention except a couple of times and from behind glass.”
Yasmeen and Ghazaleh showed their great happiness to see their mother out of jail, and assured that their suffering now will be less compared to the past, after their mother has been released to reunite them and to finally live together side by side.
Irena’s father-in-law, Abu Yousef, who came to Ramallah to receive her said, “I am happy to see my daughter-in-law but sad because my three sons are still in jail and were not included in the exchange deal, despite the fact that they were detained since al Aqsa Intifada and the deal’s conditions apply to them and they are sentenced to life.”
The Palestinian embassy in Ukraine, headed by Ambassador Mohammad Al-Asa’ad, worked hard this month to bring joy to Irena’s heart and her family, so they provided tickets for her mother and daughter to come to Palestine to reunite them with released Irena.
M.G./F.R.
