Jordan releases terrorists convicted of murdering Israelis
Amman caves in to public pressure, sets four men convicted of killing IDF officer, soldier in 1990 free. Prisoners sentenced in Israel, turned over to Jordan as gesture to King Abdullah
Jordan has release four prisoners who were convicted of murdering an IDF officer and a soldier in 1990, the Jordanian news agency Petra reported Wednesday.
The four – Salam Yusuf Salame abu-Jelon, Khaled Abd al-Rizk, Amin Abd al-Karim Alsana and Sultan Taha Ajluni – who originally served their sentence is an Israeli prison, were transferred to Jordan for the remainder of their prison term in 2007, as a gesture to Jordan's King Abdullah II.
According to the report, following the recent prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hizbullah and the former's willingness to release 200 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Jordanian government was subject to significant public pressure to release the four.
Israel agreed to turn the four over to Jordan under the condition they would not be made eligible for parole before serving at least 18 months in a Jordanian prison, meaning not before December of 2009.
The agreement did, however, include a clause which allows Jordan to pardon the prisoners, should Israel decide to release Palestinian prisoner as a gesture to the PA.
After the decision to transfer the men to a Jordanian prison was made, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a statement saying: "We received a personal request in the matter from the king, who is one of my friends... This move was considered very carefully. We are not releasing (these) prisoners, we are remanding them to a Jordanian prison for the rest of their sentence."
