“After seven and a half months and 25 trial sessions, the [Israeli] occupation’s Ofer court sentenced Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), to 15 months in jail”, Ghassan Jarrar, the jailed member of parliament’s husband, told the Anadolu Agency.
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She had been arrested in April on a series of charges, including encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban.
The period of incarceration since April will be counted toward her sentence, meaning she is likely to remain in jail until next summer.
Eleven out of 12 of the charges against Jarrar involve activities linked to her work as a Palestinian parliamentarian – including giving media interviews, and meeting with released Palestinian prisoners.
In a statement, the army said Jarrar was convicted under a plea agreement Sunday in a military court for her PFLP membership and for allegedly calling for Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to win the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Palestinians offer the funeral prayers over the body of Malik Shaheen, 21, who was killed in clashes with Israeli troops, during his funeral in Deheishe Refugee Camp, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. “Her place is not in prison, it is in the parliament”. Jarrar was charged with security-related offenses.
At each stage of the case, he also complained that the delay of bringing charges against her hampered his defense against the charges and he criticized the use of classified evidence he could not view that the IDF used during the detention hearings.
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The PFLP described the court decision as “tyrannical and part of the ongoing Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people”. Over the past year she has been involved in the Palestinian Authority’s bid to the International Criminal Court over allegations of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, which many claim is the real reason for her arrest and continued detention. According to Addameer, five other members of the PLC are now imprisoned by Israel, some of them under administrative detention.
