Two more members of the Jewish terrorist underground were released from prison Tuesday on the eve of Independence Day. Of the 27 men originally convicted and sentenced for a series of violent crimes against Arabs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, only seven remain in jail.
Gilead Peli, 32, and Yeshua Ben-Shoshan, 36, left Tel Mond prison one year short of serving the two-thirds of their sentences required for early release for good behavior. President Chaim Herzog substituted a two-year suspended sentence for the remaining one year in prison. Peli was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit a crime and participation in a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court, on appeal, reduced his sentence to 4 1/2 years. Ben-Shoshan was originally sentenced to 4 1/2 years.
They told reporters they regretted their acts and called on Herzog to pardon the seven others still in jail. Three of them are serving life sentences for an attack on the Islamic College in Hebron in which they murdered three Arab students.
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