Prisoners' Fate Key to Mideast Talks

[Darranar]

HEBRON, West Bank -- Since Haifa Jawat Amasi married her husband in 1986, she figures he has been picked up and imprisoned by Israeli security officers at least 15 times, usually for four to six months. He has never been charged with a crime, she said, nor has he ever been accused of participating in any violence.

But her husband, Ismail Mohammed Amasi, 41, is a senior political officer in the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a militant group that during the 34-month Palestinian uprising has participated in 20 attacks in which 28 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli, Palestinian and media accounts.

On June 24, 2002, Israeli soldiers went to the family's house and detained Amasi. He was not charged with a crime, nor was he allowed to see any of the evidence against him. In a secret proceeding, a military judge ruled that, under Israeli law, Amasi was a security risk to Israel and ordered him held in a process known as "administrative detention" for the maximum period of six months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15620-2003Aug2.html