Freed Palestinian legislator accuses Israel of torturing prisoners

A Palestinian lawmaker freed from a Zionist detention camp Wednesday has accused Israel of "mistreating and torturing" Palestinian prisoners as a punishment for their political views.

Ahmed Haj Ali, 66, was released from the Ketzaot desert internment camp in southern Palestine where he has been detained without charge or trial for the past five months.

"I want to tell the world that Israel is an apartheid and racist state, it is a state where the justice system is subservient to the military establishment and the secret police. If you are non-Jewish you can't expect justice from an inherently unjust system." Ali told IRNA the Zionist prison authorities punished and tortured him upon hearing that he was a main winner in last month's Palestinian legislative elections.

"When they heard that I was among the winners in the elections and that I received the second highest number of votes in the Nablus district, they handcuffed me and shackled my feet. And when I asked him why they were doing that, they said 'just to congratulate you on your victory.' " Ali said he was held all the five months without charge or trial.

"They (Israel's Shin Bet (domestic security agency) interrogators said that my nomination constituted a danger for the Palestinian Authority." Asked if the mistreatment meted out to him and other prisoners increased following the elections on 25 January, Ali answered positively.

"Certainly. It seems they wanted to punish us for our victory." He pointed out that some of the elected lawmakers, like Muhammed Abu Juheishe, had been placed in solitary confinement.

It is believed that nearly 10 Palestinian prisoners elected for Parliament are imprisoned in Israel, including Fatah's Secretary- General Marwan Barghouthi, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat as well as at least eight pro-Hamas legislators.