A hearing is being held this afternoon to decide whether Yitzchak Pass and Matityahu Shvo will be released on parole from prison, or whether they will remain incarcerated for another eight months. Prayer and Torah study services are being held throughout the day outside the Ayalon Prison in Ramle, where the two are being held and where the hearing is taking place.
Pass and Shvo, whose wives are sisters, were convicted of illegal possession and transport of eight bricks of dynamite. The police claimed the two were planning to use the explosives in attacks on Arabs, but the court ruled that insufficient evidence was brought to corroborate this accusation.
Shalhevet Pass, the infant daughter of Yitzchak, was cold-bloodedly murdered by a Palestinian sniper over three years ago, and he himself was moderately wounded in the attack. Shalhevet's mother was about to place her in or take her out of the stroller when the murderer placed the baby in his gun sights and shot a bullet through her skull. The murder occurred in a playground of the Avraham Avinu neighborhood of Hevron, and the murderer was standing in the Abu Sneineh hills overlooking it. Shalhevet's parents delayed the funeral for several days, in a demand that the army retake the hills, which the Hevron residents renamed the Shalhevet Hills.
Pass and Shvo were arrested in July 2003 on undetailed "security charges," and were not permitted to meet with their lawyers for over two weeks. Constant veiled accusations of "membership in a terrorist organization" were floated, but these were never proven. In January of this year, though the prosecution had asked for sentences of six years, the Jerusalem District Court sentenced the pair to only 15 months in prison, in accordance with a plea bargain agreement. In April, despite the agreement, the Supreme Court accepted the State's appeal, and increased the sentences to two full years in prison for each.
If Pass and Shvo are granted the standard reduction of one-third of their sentence for good behavior today, they will be released on Tuesday. If they are denied the reduction, they will be imprisoned until June 24. Honenu director Shmuel Meidad of Hevron says that Shvo was merely a passenger in the car at the time, and agreed to plead guilty to one of the charges as part of a joint plea bargain agreement for the benefit of his brother-in-law and at least one other defendant in a related case.
Pass and Shvo, whose wives are sisters, were convicted of illegal possession and transport of eight bricks of dynamite. The police claimed the two were planning to use the explosives in attacks on Arabs, but the court ruled that insufficient evidence was brought to corroborate this accusation.
Shalhevet Pass, the infant daughter of Yitzchak, was cold-bloodedly murdered by a Palestinian sniper over three years ago, and he himself was moderately wounded in the attack. Shalhevet's mother was about to place her in or take her out of the stroller when the murderer placed the baby in his gun sights and shot a bullet through her skull. The murder occurred in a playground of the Avraham Avinu neighborhood of Hevron, and the murderer was standing in the Abu Sneineh hills overlooking it. Shalhevet's parents delayed the funeral for several days, in a demand that the army retake the hills, which the Hevron residents renamed the Shalhevet Hills.
Pass and Shvo were arrested in July 2003 on undetailed "security charges," and were not permitted to meet with their lawyers for over two weeks. Constant veiled accusations of "membership in a terrorist organization" were floated, but these were never proven. In January of this year, though the prosecution had asked for sentences of six years, the Jerusalem District Court sentenced the pair to only 15 months in prison, in accordance with a plea bargain agreement. In April, despite the agreement, the Supreme Court accepted the State's appeal, and increased the sentences to two full years in prison for each.
If Pass and Shvo are granted the standard reduction of one-third of their sentence for good behavior today, they will be released on Tuesday. If they are denied the reduction, they will be imprisoned until June 24. Honenu director Shmuel Meidad of Hevron says that Shvo was merely a passenger in the car at the time, and agreed to plead guilty to one of the charges as part of a joint plea bargain agreement for the benefit of his brother-in-law and at least one other defendant in a related case.