JERUSALEM (CWNews.com) - The Latin-rite Patriarch of Jerusalem will ask the Vatican to pressure Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, according to an official in Jerusalem on Friday.
Patriarch Michel Sabbah will pass on a request made by the Committee for the Defense of Palestinians Prisoners, an unidentified official told Reuters news agency. "We have definite demands," the official said. "We want to pressure the government of Israel to release detainees." The request was primarily made on behalf of prisoners given long sentences and the elderly and infirm.
Israel has freed 383 Palestinian and other Arab political prisoners under an interim peace deal Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed in Egypt in September, but a further 1,624 remain in jail.
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