Israel’s Tel Aviv District Court extended by a further three months the administrative detention Sunday of Lebanese Sheikh Abd al Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, reported Haaretz newspaper.
Dirani and Obeid have been kept in Israel for more than a decade as bargaining chips for information on the fate of Israeli soldier Ron Arad who went missing in 1986.
The court, said the paper, rejected a request by Zvi Rish, Dirani and Obeid’s lawyer, to replay a recording of an interview on Channel Two television Saturday night in which Mossad’s former deputy, Amiram Levin, conceded that holding the two Lebanese captives had proved effective in winning the release of Arad.
The lawyer told Israel Radio on Sunday that it had been known for a long time that Arad was not in Lebanon.
“He is being held in Iran,” the paper quoted him as saying.
In November, the Lebanese Hizbollah movement kidnapped three soldiers, demanding their exchange with all Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails – Albawaba.com
