Seven Jordainian prisoners will be released on Thursday, an Israeli prison authority offical said, but failed to expalin why only seven out of the 9 approved by the cabinet will be released.
Israeli prison authorities published Tuesday the names of the Jordanian prisoners skated for release in the coming few days. The list included the names of 7 prisoners only.
The sentences of the seven prisoners range between 8 to 4 years; all of them has completed at least half of their imprisonment periods.
Israeli ministers unanimously approved on Sunday the release of nine Jordanian prisoners, a governmental source said.
There are 21 Jordanians held in Israeli prisons, but only nine can be released because the others do not meet criteria set by a government committee on releasing prisoners.
Some of the Jordanian prisoners were involved in attacks on Israelis, and so far are identified as ‘prisoners with blood on hand’.
The same issue is still halting a second round of Palestinian prisoners’ release, where the Israeli government has refused a Palestinian Authority request to revise the release criteria. The Palestinian-Israel committee on prisoners’ release is expected to meet in few days.
The nine Jordanian prisoners will be released in the coming days, an official in the cabinet meeting said on condition of anonymity.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Farouk Kasrawi welcomed Sunday the Israeli move.
‘It is a positive and good step in the right direction to release all the prisoners,’ he said in a statement issued by the official Petra News Agency.
He stressed that the Jordanian government will continue to work to release all the other Jordanian prisoners.
