Member of Hamas’s political bureau Izzat al-Resheq has said contacts are underway with some countries to urge them to receive Palestinian scholar and professor Abdul-Halim al-Ashqar whom the US reportedly handed over to Israel.
In Twitter remarks Resheq said that Ashqar could be now in one of Israel’s jails or still on the US plane at Ben Gurion airport after a US judge issued a verdict calling for not removing the professor from the aircraft.
The Hamas official added that there could be a chance to send Ashqar to any country willing to receive him.
He asserted that the Hamas leadership initiated contacts with some friendly governments to urge them to intervene and discussing with them the possibility of allowing Ashqar to live in one of their countries.
Abdul-Halim al-Ashqar originally from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem was a former associate professor of business at Howard University in Washington DC. He was also a former candidate who ran in the last Palestinian presidential elections held in 2005.
In November 2007 al-Ashqar was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury after he was accused of being a member of Hamas and collecting funds for it.
Washington decided to hand over Ashqar to Israel for refusing to testify against some Palestinian Muslim activists.
