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| 01/06/2008 Nassim Nisr is on his way home.
The Lebanese detainee in Israeli jails since 6 years was released Sunday morning from the Nitzan (Ramle) Prison in Ramallah. He is on his way to the Naqura crossing and into Lebanon to his hometown Bazouriyyeh.
Nasser is a former Jew who converted to Islam moved to Israel from Lebanon and was sentenced to six years in prison in 2002 after he was convicted of providing information to Hezbollah.
His prison term has recently ended, but the Israeli security establishment considered holding onto him as a bargaining chip in the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah – and he has been held under administrative arrest at the Nitzan Detention Center.
Earlier this week, Nisr's attorney Smadar Ben-Natan said that “the timing of the release is not coincidental. Israel could have transferred him to Lebanon a few weeks ago, but the procedure has been delayed in order to be perceived as an Israeli gesture.”
On Monday, Lebanese officials reported progress in the UN-mediated negotiations, saying that the German mediator Gerhard Konrad had met with members of Hezbollah and that a breakthrough was near. However Israeli security authorities and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have said the handover is not connected to any future prisoner exchange, rather, was approved after it became evident that the decision to continue to hold Nisr indefinitely as a bargaining chip would not stand up to Supreme Court scrutiny.
Earlier this week, Nisr's family in Lebanon said he had called
them to inform them of his imminent release.
Nisr left Lebanon during the Israeli invasion of 1982 and joined
his mother's family in Israel, where he settled near Tel Aviv.
Nisr's brother Mohammed said Nessim had told him in a phone call
a month ago that "his jailers had placed him in solitary confinement
in a bid to persuade him to abandon his plans to return to Lebanon
with his two daughters, who are Israeli citizens." | 
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