RAMALLAH: The Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has announced that he would issue an indictment against Arab Member of Israeli Knesset Said Naffa' for contact with a foreign agent.
The Israeli Radio said that Naffa' of Balad party will have his parliamentary immunity suspended and will be issued with an indictment for a meeting he held with Talal Naji, deputy director general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Syria.
The report added that Naffa' also visited the offices of Hamas politburo chief, Khaled Mish'al, but did not meet with him during his 2007 trip to Syria. He will also be indicted for aiding and abetting illegal departure to an enemy country and illegal departure to an enemy country, the report said.
The indictment that will be issued against him in the Nazareth District Court will state that Syria is, by law, an enemy state.
"In June 2007, the defendant contacted the interior minister with a request to authorize the departure of Druze religious leaders, citizens of Israel, to Syria. However, the requested permission was not received due to security concerns," the drafted indictment reads.
"In the aforementioned events, the defendant illegally departed for Syria without a legal permit from the interior minister or the prime minister, and knowingly aided a group of about 280 people to travel to an enemy country without a legal permit," the indictment will read.
The Arab lawmaker said in a press statement that the decision to indict him was due to his Druze origins. "This decision is very strange," he said, and added that similar cases against other MKs had been thrown out of court.
"Everything I did, in truth, I did as part of the fulfillment of my duties as an MK and representative of the public, and I will fight this decision with all of the tools I possess," Naffa' added.
