Prison Service releases list of prisoners to be freed

In another step towards completion of prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, Israel Prison Service publishes list of five Lebanese detainees to be released in exchange for kidnapped soldiers, including terrorist Samir Kuntar

Raanan Ben-Zur|Published: 07.13.08 , 17:09

The Israel Prison Service on Sunday published a list containing the names of the Lebanese prisoners currently behind bars in Israel, who are to be released over the next few days as part of the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah. The list appears on the service's website.

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One of the prisoners on the list is Samir Kuntar, who was sentenced to life plus 40 years in prison for murdering three family members and a police officer in Nahariya in 1979.

A statement by the Prison Service said that "on June 29 the government resolved to approve the draft for the agreement to release the Israeli kidnapped soldiers in Lebanon, according to which kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev will be returned to Israel in exchange for the return of Samir Kuntar and four other illegal Lebanese militants to Lebanon." The statement also said Kuntar would be released this coming Wednesday.

Just a few minutes after the list's publication on the Prison Service's website, it was taken off for an undisclosed reason. Aside from Kuntar, the list includes Khader Zidan, Maher Qurani, Mahmad Srour, and Hussein Sleiman, all captured during the Second Lebanon War.

On Tuesday the government is expected to discuss the approval of the deal with Hizbullah. If signed, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann will transfer a written recommendation to President Shimon Peres, who will decide whether to grant the five prisoners pardons.

Last week soldiers from the Northern Command's Engineering Corps along with 100 members of the Military Rabbinate began to exhume the bodies of terrorists buried in the cemetery for enemy combatants in the northern Galilee kibbutz of Amiad. The soldiers unearthed the coffins of 190 Hizbullah operatives in preparation for their transfer to Lebanon.

Military sources said that the exhumation was carried out according to official procedure, using IDF registration lists.

"We regard the dead, whoever it may be, with all due respect," one source claimed. "We have a map detailing the exact locations of those buried, and every grave has a sign with a number, so that we are informed of all the details about the dead – there are no surprises here."