RAMALLAH, Monday, April 2021 (WAFA) – Palestinian freedom fighter, Rushdi Abu Mukh, 58, was released today after completing his 35-year prison sentence in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

Abu Mukh, from the Arab town of Baqaa al-Gharbieh inside Israel, was detained in 1986 along with three others from the same town for their resistance of the Israeli occupation. He was first sentenced to life in prison, and later his prison term was set to 35 years.

He was supposed to be released last month, but the Israeli occupation authorities kept him in prison for 12 extra days claiming he had an unpaid traffic fine since before his arrest 35 years ago.

Abu Mukh, along with 24 other Palestinian freedom fighters detained since before the signing of the Palestinian-Israeli Oslo accords in 1993, was supposed to have been released in 2014 in a US-brokered deal as part of the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

However, Israel reneged on the deal at the last minute, which led to a freeze in the peace talks, and the prisoners, most of them Palestinians from inside Israel, including Karim Younis and Maher Younis who have been in prison since 1983, or occupied East Jerusalem remained in prison.

M.K.