Karim Khalaf, the deposed mayor of Ramallah, said today that he was just released from “house arrest” after two years’ con- finement to the town of Jericho. But the Israeli authorities say he was never placed under any restrictions.
Khalaf was always free to go wherever he wanted, according to Brig. Gen. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, coordinator of government activites on the West Bank. Khalaf said he was notified by the civil administration yesterday that his confinement was lifted. He and his lawyer insisted that the exmayor was under verbal orders not to leave Jericho and that according to military regulations a verbal order is as valid as a written one.
“In the past two years I was confined to my town. Nobody was allowed to visit me and sometimes I was under house arrest, not town arrest,” Khalaf told reporters.
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