Three SLA members ask for asylum in Israel

Three members of the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army (SLA) militias on Sunday appealed to the supreme court in Israel to get the right of political asylum for them and members of their families in Israel.

Their lawyer, Zefi Reish, told AFP that the three SLA members asked for political asylum or for Israeli citizenship before Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon. The lawyer said the three men said in the asylum request that they "are threatened with death in case the Israeli army withdraws from south Lebanon."

They said that Israel owes to them a "moral debt" that it has to pay while preparing to withdraw from south Lebanon within a framework of agreement with both Damascus and Beirut.

The three SLA members stated that they had resorted to the law, which has not given an answer, after they had guarantees from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak concerning their future and the future of their families.