President Mahmoud Abbas decided to release Abu Zaid well before the completion of his year and a half-long prison sentence.
(MADA/IFEX) – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) welcomes President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to release journalist Tariq Abu Zaid. Abu Zaid was released on the afternoon of 14 November 2010.
On 8 November, MADA appealed to the president to release Abu Zaid before the occasion of Eid Al-Adha and the anniversary of the declaration of the independent Palestinian state, so that he could spend Eid with his family and friends.
It is worth mentioning that Abu Zaid was arrested in Nablus city in the West Bank on 8 November 2009 because of his work as a correspondent for Aqsa TV. He was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on 16 February 2010 in a Palestinian military court, in spite of the Supreme Court decision to release him on 12 January.
In a separate case, MADA expresses its concern about an unknown person’s threats to kill SKeyes Gaza correspondent Asma’ Al-Goul and her son. The incident took place on 10 November. Al-Goul told MADA that she had received direct death threats against her and her son via a comment posted on her blog. The message also contained obscenities. Al-Goul added: “On 13 November, I went to the police station and filed a complaint about the threats. This is not the first time that I have been threatened, but this time my son’s name was included in the threat.”
