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Azzam Azzam remains imprisoned in an Egyptian prison after officials there refused to swap him for Karine A crewmen. The crewmen were released by Israel on Sunday night.
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| By Ellis Shuman October 15, 2002 |
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Israel deported on Sunday night eight Egyptian sailors being held since the IDF captured the Karine A weapons ship on January 2. The sailors were released based on a decision by Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein that there was no legal justification for their detention. The government had hoped to swap the men for Azzam Azzam, the Druze Israeli imprisoned in an Egyptian jail for allegedly spying on behalf of the Mossad, but Egypt refused.
The sailors were transported from Ma'asiyahu Prison, where they had been held since their capture, to Ben-Gurion International Airport and they were flown to Egypt. One of the men, Mohammed Assad al-Haggag, 37, said he and his colleagues were subjected to mental and physical torture in Israeli custody in efforts to get them to confess to being connected to the weapons shipment, Ha'aretz reported.
The fate of a Jordanian crew member was unclear; Ha'aretz reported that he remained in Israeli custody but Yediot Aharonot said that he had been released as well. The ship's thirteen-man crew was commanded by Col. Omar Akawi, a senior officer of the Palestinian Naval Police, and there were two other Palestinian naval officers on board as well
After extensive interrogation by the Shin Bet security agency, it was established that the Egyptian crewmen were not connected to terrorist activities or to the weapons cargo that their ship was transporting. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office decided to hold onto the crew with hopes that they could be swapped for Azzam Azzam.
The crewmen last week initiated legal proceedings to petition Israel's High Court of Justice for their release. Rubinstein issued a ruling saying the government had no justification to detain the men, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon initially opposed this opinion, Ha'aretz reported. Only after Sharon was convinced by the legal opinion of the attorney general did the Justice Ministry give the order to release and deport the sailors.
However, the cabinet decided already on May 29 to release the eight Egyptian crewmen, Israel Radio reported. Israel Radio diplomatic correspondent Yoni Ben Menachem reported that Israeli officials planned to discuss Azzam Azzam's release with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's adviser Osama El-Baz, who was due to visit Israel. Media analysts suggested that the government had erred by publicizing its decision before it was able to work out the prisoner swap.
Naveh visits Azzam in prison
Minister without portfolio Danny Naveh (Likud) traveled to Cairo this week and met with Azzam in the prison where he has been held for six years out of his fifteen-year sentence. A government source told Ha'aretz that Naveh spoke with an Egyptian official prior to his departure, but a spokeswoman for Naveh denied any connection between the seamen's release and Naveh's meetings with Egyptian officials.
Egypt refused to consider a prisoner swap, Yediot Aharonot reported, and Egyptian officials added that they had no particular interest in securing the release of the Karine A sailors.
Naveh said that his visit with Azzam was "very hard" and that the Israeli "had given up hope."
Wafa, one of Azzam's brothers who accompanied Naveh to Cairo, said Azzam wants only one thing - "to return home quickly. His physical and mental shape is very difficult. He is isolated in subhuman conditions, and his situation has deteriorated since my last visit with him ten months ago."
Azzam was sentenced in 1997 after allegedly confessing to receiving underwear soaked in invisible ink while working at an Israeli-owned textile plant in Cairo. He has consistently denied that he was a spy and Israeli leaders have repeatedly called on Egypt to reduce his sentence and release him, but the Egyptian government has refused to budge on the issue.
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