Fadwa Al Barghouti is the wife of imprisoned Marwan, the leader of the Fateh party in the West Bank and an elected member of Palestinian government. He has played a crucial role in several negotiations and is considered by many to be a hero and an asset to all aspects of the Palestinian political and social scene.
Mrs. Barghouti said Sunday that her husband’s kidnapping and detention in Israeli prison is a political issue, and his trial was political, not factual. Marwan has been imprisoned since early in the Intifada.
She clarified that Israel is attempting to take away the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle against the occupation and Palestinian nationhood by using Marwan as a sacrificial lamb, as it were.
Fadwa Al Barghouti also said that Marwan’s release has official merit not only as he is an elected Palestinian official (receiving 96 percent of the vote in his Ramallah / Al Bireh) District, but also has the merit of popular demand. His charges are sketchy at best, according to lawyers, as nothing was proven against him in the Israeli courts, which the outspoken Marwan Al Barghouti has regularly referred to as “kangaroo.”
Fadwa told PNN that Israeli Army Radio spoke of a special meeting with the United States government that may result in a trade for the release of Marwan with the Israeli spy held in the U.S., Gonathan Pollard.
Mrs. Al Barghouti also said that she has heard additional rumors from the mass media in regards to the subject. The last time there was talk of a trade for her husband’s release was with the Egyptian government for Israeli spy Azzam Azzam. Azzam was released, but Marwan was not.
She said, “Today I have heard about the possible trade with Pollard, but I do not know what will happen in the future, nor if the rumors are true or not. But what I do know,” Fadwa said, “is that the release of Marwan Al Barghouti is for the merit of the Palestinian people and government.”
The wife of the Palestinian political prisoner concluded her interview with the Palestine News Network by saying, “I do not normally believe in rumors, but do believe fully that that I am listening to all possibilities, however will believe nothing until Marwan Al Barghouti is released from the Israeli prison system as is the demand of Palestinians.
I can confirm to you that his imprisonment is merely political and his release is critical to the state of Palestine.”
