Israel to release elderly Egyptian prisoner who killed an Israeli soldier

The Israeli authorities decided to release in the coming hours Mahmoud Soliman El-Sawarka, an elderly Egyptian imprisoned in Israel, after a recommendation made by the committee responsible for releasing prisoners, which is comprised of the prison service, general security bodies, the Ministry of Justice and the Egyptian and Israeli general prosecution.

Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Basuoni told the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper that Israeli President Ezer Weizman will issue a pardon for El-Sawarka during the coming hours after a recommendation made by the committee which conditioned a presidential pardon for El-Sawarka and that there is no justification for keeping him in prison.

El-Sawarka, 74, spent nearly 23 years in the Israeli prisons. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1978 for placing a mine in the way of an Israeli military vehicle in 1977, due to which one Israeli soldier was killed and another was injured.