Dozens of Palestinians on Sunday staged a protest in Ramallah in solidarity with the Palestinian detainee Nael al-Barghouti who has been held in Israeli jails for 39 years.
In 2009 al-Barghouti was registered in Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving political prisoner ever.
The protesters raised portraits of al-Barghouti and banners calling for releasing him and all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Iman Nafe’ al-Barghouti’s wife told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli authorities are unlawfully detaining her husband although he was freed in the 2011 Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner swap deal.
Al-Barghouti was arrested in April 1978 when he was 19 years old and sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 years on charges of carrying out armed attacks and establishing resistance cells.
The Israeli occupation authorities released him in October 2011 along with over 1000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
In 2014 al-Barghouti and other 60 Palestinians who were released in the 2011 prisoner swap deal were re-arrested after three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed in al-Khalil.
An Israeli court in February 2017 decided to re-impose the previous punishment on al-Barghouti and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
