Two Israeli journalists who were sentenced to a year’s imprisonment at a secret trial for publishing material considered harmful to state security were quietly released from prison last Friday. It had been indicated that the two, Shmeul Mor, editor of the weekly newspaper, Bul, and his assistant, Maxim Gilan, would be released just prior to the start of Passover, last Sunday. President Shazar commuted their sentence last February, a month after they entered prison.
The two journalists appealed today for abolition of the law under which they were convicted and asked for public support of a campaign to abolish the measure. They said the law contained a clause which virtually barred any opportunity for a convicted person to obtain acquittal. They asserted that the Justice Ministry had recommended the reduction of their sentences only after news of their secret arrest, trial and sentencing appeared in the foreign press.
Their arrest followed publication in Bul last December of a report alleging that the Israeli secret service was involved in the kidnapping of Ben Barka, an opposition leader, in Algeria.
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