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Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the Imam of al-Aqsa Mosque, appeared before the Israeli Magistrate’s Court over alleged charges linked to terrorism.
Residents of Jerusalem gathered around Sheikh Sabri as he arrived at the court in a wheelchair. He is 86 years old and faces accusations of incitement to terrorism, including for offering condolences for the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On Tuesday, his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa said the Israeli court session would be “procedural”, stressing that the case formed part of what he described as a “systematic political pursuit”.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Zabarqa, who represents Sheikh Sabri, added: “The Israeli Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem will today read out the indictment, and we will request further evidence from the court, which we believe is necessary to refute these charges.”
He continued: “We will take the indictment and will not respond to it immediately. We will request another date from the court to present our reply. Therefore, this session is procedural rather than substantive.”
READ: Pakistan condemns Israeli settlers’ raid on al-Aqsa mosque
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
