Phone call between Arafat and Barak; on treatment of prisoners
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 12/28/1999

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat held yesterday a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to improve the treatment of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons and to address the necessity of releasing a new group of prisoners for Ramadan month according to what is stated in the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.

Palestinian sources told ArabicNews.com that the prisoners are badly treated by Israeli prison officials, saying that Hadrim prison, where nearly 80 Palestinians are held, is witnessing tensions due to bad relations between the detainees and the prison administration.

Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian side refuses the release of the Palestinian detainees unilaterally, therefore the Palestinian government asks Israel to resume the talks and to release new groups according to the measures agreed upon in the Sharm El-Sheikh's note to also include the release of detainees from the city of Jerusalem, denouncing the Israeli procedures.

He said Israel has no right to decide unilaterally the number and the group of the Palestinians that will be released, adding that the Palestinian government has not received any prisoners released by Israel and that those imprisoned for criminal causes are not included in the Israeli - Palestinian negotiations.

Previous Stories:
  Israel frees Lebanese, Palestinian prisoners   (12/27/1999)
  Arafat, Barak meet in secret   (12/22/1999)
  Israel to release Palestinian prisoners during Ramadan   (12/13/1999)

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