The Israeli Central Court in Petah Tikva convicted on Tuesday an Arab detainee from the Al Teera City, north of the country, of “collaborating with a foreign enemy” and providing a “foreign enemy with classified information”, and sentenced him to 68 months imprisonment and 12 months on parole. The Israeli prosecution claimed that Rawi Sultani contacted a foreign agent, transferred information to the enemy and planned a “terror attack”. The charges for “planning a terror attack” were dropped.
The prosecution demanded a harsher sentence and claimed that “terror groups are trying to recruit Arab youths in Israel”.
Sultani was arrested last year and Israel claimed that he was recruited by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah Party to gather information about Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi.
Representing his son, attorney Fuad Sultani, stated that the state presented over exaggerated charges against his client.
He added that the whole case is about harassing a political activist who if forced to pay the price of the policies of the Israeli security devices.
Sultani also stated that the Israeli media also played a role in this type of unjust ruling.
“If the defendant was a Jew, the security devices would only have issued a warning”, he said, “But Israel want to punish the political activists, and we hereby confirm that we are part of the Palestinian people, the Arab nations, and we have the natural right to communicate with our nation everywhere”.
