Mustafa Awad, 37, who was convicted, among other things, of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was released from the Gilboa prison on February 25, and then returned last week to the same prison just a few hours before he was to be flown home to Belgium, Ha’aretz reported Tuesday.
Awad was scheduled to fly back to Belgium last week, in coordination with the Belgian consulate, but the Shin Bet intervened and demanded a re-examination of the parole board’s decision.
Awad, born to a family of refugees living in Lebanon, is a Belgian citizen who was arrested at the Allenby Bridge in July 2018, on his way into Israel. He was interrogated, charged and sentenced in August 2018 to a year in jail for his membership in PFLP, participation in illegal military training, and transferring funds to PFLP terrorists.
The Israeli parole board initially ruled in favor of Awad’s early release, since his offenses were not very severe, “both in terms of his membership in the organization, which included mainly studies about the organization and intended primarily to establish his worldview, and in terms of the fact that his military training did not include the use of weapons.” A week after her first decision, the unit once again discussed his early release request and decided to reject it.
A Shin Bet spokesperson told Haaretz that “there has been no change in the Shin Bet’s position that the early release of the prisoner—who is serving a prison term for serious security offenses—is liable to endanger state security and public safety, including should he is expelled from Israel.”
The Shin Bet also explained that “due to an error in the process with the Israel Prisons Service, the Shin Bet’s [objection] was not transferred to the parole board, and when the matter was brought to their attention, the relevant parties acted immediately to deliver the security apparatus’ opinion as required.”
So the PFLP member will stay under Jewish State care for another five months, if he stays out of trouble.