Six Syrian prisoners, who were detained by Israeli authorities four months ago aboard their schooner when it was intercepted in Israeli territorial waters, broke into spontaneous shouts of “Bravo, Israeli justice!”, when District Court Judge Moshe Perez today acquitted five of them and suspended a four-month sentence of the sixth.
The Syrians, whose schooner, the Murad, was taken into custody by Israeli authorities near the Gaza Strip, wept with joy when they heard the judgment. The captain, who was at the wheel of the vessel when it was detained, will have to serve his four-month jail sentence if he is caught again in Israeli territorial waters within a two-year probationary period. All six Syrians were turned over to United Nations Truce Observers for safe conduct home through Lebanon.
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