Israeli occupation issues sentence against Freedom Tunnel prisoners

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The Israeli occupation court issued a sentence on Sunday against the Palestinian prisoners who broke out of Gilboa Prison on September 6, in what was later known as the Freedom Tunnel operation.

Al Mayadeen's correspondent said the occupation court sentenced five of the prisoners to five years and eight months in prison, adding that Zakaria Al-Zubaidi was not sentenced today because of his different circumstances.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club lawyer Khaled Mahajna told Al Mayadeen that the rulings against the prisoners were "unfair", adding that these sentences are an example of "Israel's" arbitrary practices against the Palestinian people.

Mahajna noted that the rulings can be appealed, but there is no trust whatsoever in the Israeli courts' system. 

Earlier, the prisoners' lawyer said 11 prisoners were being sentenced today for the 2021 prison break from Gilboa in September, clarifying that five of the defendants are accused of providing assistance to the others to escape, as per the Israeli claims.

Mahajna also said that he does not expect the Israeli occupation to do them justice, rather it will conspire with Israeli intelligence and the prosecution's demands and will force harsh sentences against them in order to please the "Israeli public" and feign an achievement after the embarrassment the prisoners caused them.

He declared that this "show trial" the prisoners are undergoing is illegal and inhumane, noting that if the sentences are harsh, the defendants' team of lawyers will head to the Central Court and the Higher Court to appeal any sentence considered harsher than expected.

The other prisoners that provided assistance to the Freedom Tunnel prisoners as per Israeli claims were later sentenced to four years of imprisonment and a fine.

On the Monday morning of September 6, 2021, six Palestinian prisoners broke out of the high-security Israeli Gilboa prison through a tunnel they dug, which led them outside the prison walls before they were arrested.

The Freedom Tunnel prisoners are Mahmoud Al-Aridah, Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, Yaqoub Qadri, Mohammad Al-Aridah, Ayham Kamamji, and Munadel Nafi'at.

Mahmoud Al-Aridah and Yaqoub Qadri were re-arrested four days later, on September 10, 2021 in Al-Nasra. Zakaria Al-Zubaidi and Mohammad Al-Aridah were re-arrested the next day, and Ayham Kamamji and Mundadel Nafi'at on Sunday the 19th, after the house they had barricaded themselves in, east of Jenin, was surrounded.