Hamas appeals to Arab leaders to intervene, end detention of its leaders
Jordan, Politics, 9/24/1999

The spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, has called on Arab and Muslim leaders to release the six leaders and members of the Hamas movement who were arrested on Wednesday when they arrived in Amman, Jordan. He stressed Hamas' opposition to all pressures made on it.

In a telephone call made by the Jordanian daily al-Dostour, Sheikh Yassin urged Arab and Muslim kings and presidents and Arab and Muslim people's activists to interfere in order to release chairman of the political bureau of the movement, Khaled Mashaal; its official spokesman, Ibrahim Ghoshe; and four of their aides. He also urged the return of the movement's political bureau member, Mousa Abu Marzouk, to Jordan.

Sheikh Yassin also called on Jordan's King Abdullah to interfere to solve this matter and to work to strengthen national unity in Jordan, adding that measures taken by the Jordanian authorities against Hamas do not serve the relations between the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples.

Sheikh Yassin said the detainees' return to Jordan is proof of their innocence and of the legitimacy of their presence in Amman, adding that the movement is waiting for the Palestinian Authority's reply to its request to facilitate travel procedures of a Hamas delegation to meet with high-ranking Jordanian officials.

Two of the Hamas movement's leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ibrahim Ghoushe and four of their aides denied accusations addressed to them by the attorney general of the Jordanian State Security Court of being members of an illegitimate group, Hamas.

This was expressed by the chairman of the commission in defense of the detainees, Saleh al-Armouti, who added in a statement to the AFP on Thursday that after the six detainees denied the accusations addressed to them, the attorney general decided to investigate them.

Al-Armouti added that he will ask for the release of the six detainees at "guarantee" after he on Wednesday was authorized by all the detainees to defend them together with another 73 lawyers.

Previous Stories:
  Hamas urges King Abdullah to intervene to release its leaders   (9/23/1999)
  Hamas statement on leaders' arrest   (9/23/1999)
  Islamists meet in Amman   (9/23/1999)

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