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Arab lawyer from Jerusalem arrested for aiding Hamas

Israeli security forces prevented a serious prison security breach when it caught a lawyer serving as a conduit between Hamas terrorists in various prisons.

By: Atara Beck, World Israel News

An Arab lawyer from Jerusalem has been detained by Israeli security forces on charges of aiding Hamas by acting is a messenger for incarcerated terrorists and helping with the funneling of funds, Israel’s police announced Thursday.

Rami Alami, who served as a lawyer for terrorists in Israeli prisons, was arrested in February on suspicion that he served as a conduit between Hamas terrorists in various prisons, some of them in solitary confinement. He was paid for his efforts.

Police revealed that Alami, 30, whose office is situated in the Old City of Jerusalem, has been under surveillance over the past month ever since police received intelligence on his actions. According to the police findings, Alami would write down messages while visiting his clients and then pass the information on to the recipients, using his office computer. He would receive NIS 400 for every such visit.

Some of the messages he conveyed related to a prisoners’ hunger strike, the status of prisoners in different penitentiaries, lists of prisoners, updates from Hamas officials and messages to the families of incarcerated terrorists.

Alami also contacted the Palestinian media and passed on messages from the terrorists.

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After Alami’s arrest, police launched an open investigation, during which the lawyer’s office was searched, his computer and other documents confiscated and receipts testifying to his receiving of the elicit funds apprehended.

Alami claimed during his investigation that the meetings with the prisoners were coordinated with the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Prisoners’ Affairs Ministry, which denied that claim.

Simultaneously, Israel’s tax authority launched an investigation to check the possibility that Alami was involved in tax evasion as well.

He was remanded until his indictment.