Jordan parliament blasts Israel's detention of Palestinian speaker

Jan 25, 2012, 17:19 GMT

Amman - Jordan's lower house of parliament condemned Wednesday Israel's detention of Palestinian parliament Speaker Abdel Aziz Dweik as a 'flagrant violation' of international law and called for his immediate release.

Dweik, a Hamas member, was arrested by Israel at an army checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah last Thursday.

An Israeli military court sentenced him Tuesday to six months' administrative detention and a military statement Wednesday said the sentence was 'due to the danger posed by the detainee's active involvement in the Hamas terror organization.'

'Dweik's detention represents a flagrant aggression on international legitimacy because he is an elected chief of the Palestinian parliament,' the parliament said in a statement - the first official Jordanian reaction to the incident.

The chamber charged that Dweik's imprisonment at this juncture had the aim of 'derailing the Palestinian reconciliation' which Hamas earlier sealed with the rival Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Dweik was previously arrested in 2006 and spent three years in prison.

Israel regards Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Islamist movement does not recognise Israel's right to exist, and has carried out thousands of attacks against Israeli targets.

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