In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
French President Nicolas Sarkozy requested that Israel
release a Palestinian terrorist who holds an Israeli identity card and French citizenship "as a gesture of good will."
Salah Hassan Hamori, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested by the Shin Bet security agency for his part in the plot to assassinate Shas' spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in 2005.
French daily Le Figaro said Wednesday that Sarkozy's plea followed massive pressure from pro-Palestinian groups in France to work toward releasing Hamori. In his letter the French president said Hamori "has a chance of being rehabilitated in the future."
Channel 2 reported that Hamori's mother recently met with Sarkozy on the matter.
The pro-Palestinian groups in France want Sarkozy to equate the status of the convicted terrorist to that of captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who also holds French citizenship.
Shalit was kidnapped into Gaza by Palestinian terrorists on June 25, 2006.
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