Tagrid Saadi, a convicted terrorist, told the High Court Sunday that she will be dropping out of the municipal race in the northern Arab town of Sakhnin. 

Earlier, the court heard a motion by the Movement for the Quality of Government (MQG) to have Saadi struck from the Hadash party's list for municipal elections on grounds of previous terror affiliation.

Saadi, who holds Israeli citizenship, was convicted of aiding an enemy agent and conspiring with terror elements in connection with a 2002 terror attack on Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda marketplace. She had been in touch, through the internet, with the planners of the attack which made use of a female bomber and killed six people. Saadi assisted them in getting the bomber into pre-1967 Israel.

She was released from jail in January of this year after serving six years and greeted by festivities in her hometown. It was this reaction that led her to enter politics, she said.

The MQG demanded she be removed from the Hadash list, and asked the court to order the Sakhnin municipality to postpone the elections, which are scheduled for November 11.

MQG pointed out that a clause in the elections law prevents those sentenced to more than three months in prison from running for public office in the seven years after their release.

False affidavit

The State Prosecutor's Office told the court that Saadi had filed a false declaration with the Municipal Elections Committee, in which she hid the fact that her record disqualifies her from taking part in the race for city council. A judge hearing the petition said that if this was known at the time the party lists were submitted, the whole list on which Saadi ran could have been disqualified.

The false affidavit was discovered and leaked to the press less than two weeks before the election date. The State said it saw no reason to postpone the elections in Sakhnin, and suggested that the court declare Saadi's bid null and void, thus preventing her from serving on the city council even if elected. It told the court that "postponing the Sakhnin elections would do more harm than the possible election of a woman whose candidacy would be made irrelevant."

Saadi initially filed a motion to quash MQG's petition, explaining that once she had been approved as a candidate, her bid could not be contested, but eventually decided to concede.