The court decided that the Jerusalem-based lawmaker will be released from detention and expelled if he deposits 50,000 Israeli shekel (about $12,000). In addition, Abu Tir will remain in detention if he does not deposit this sum along with a self-bail of 100,000 shekel (about $25,800) and another 100,000 shekel from a third party.
He will be required to sign a document committing not to return to “Israeli territory.”
Osama Al-Sa’di, Abu Tir’s lawyer, said in a press statement that the Hamas lawmaker “unequivocally rejected the decision since it means agreeing to deportation.”
Al-Sa’di added that the defense team will petition the Jerusalem District Court against the decision which he described as “political rather than legal.”
Abu-Tir said during a hearing early this month that “I am willing to do anything to remain in Jerusalem.”
The Hamas lawmaker was charged with illegally staying in Jerusalem earlier this month, having been arrested after failing to comply with an Israeli court order to leave Jerusalem by June 30.
In May, Abu Tir, an East Jerusalem native, was released from an Israeli prison, after being jailed for four years. He was arrested in 2006 along with 65 other senior Hamas officials following the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
In early June, Jerusalem police confiscated Abu Tir’s Israeli identity card, along with those of three other Hamas legislators — Mohammed Totah, Khaled Abu Arafeh, and Ahmed Atoun — and gave them until July to leave their East Jerusalem homes. The three took refuge at the International Red Cross building in East Jerusalem to avoid the arrest.
Israel had warned the four men in the past to renounce their membership in Hamas or risk losing residency rights in East Jerusalem. All four refused to give up their duties with the Hamas Legislative Council.
