The High Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected an appeal against transfer of four Jordanian infiltrators serving life for killing soldiers to complete their terms in Jordan, according to a court document. They were expected to be sent to Jordan on Thursday. Three of the men infiltrated Israel from Jordan carrying weapons in November 1990 and got into a firefight with IDF troops that killed Capt. Yehuda Lifshitz. The other killed Sgt. Pinhas Levy in a separate incident. The attacks took place before Israel signed a peace accord with Jordan in 1994.
In February, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had accepted a request from King Abdullah II of Jordan to send the four back to Jordan, where they would serve out their prison sentences. At the time, a Jordanian official said legal issues still had to be worked out.
A government official said Israel has received an assurance from Jordan that the four, who are currently serving life sentences in Israeli jails, would serve at least 18 more months in prison in Jordan.
The court ruled, as it has in other petitions against prisoner exchanges or releases, that the question involved security and diplomatic considerations which were the responsibility of the government and regarding which the court did intervene.
While voting with the other members of the panel, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein said he did not feel the court must always reject petitions against prisoner exchanges or releases and sharply criticized the state for not telling the court openly that the terrorists would likely be released after 18 months in a Jordanian prison.
Almagor, the organization that petitioned the court along with the mother of one of two soldiers killed by the terrorists in 1990, charged that "the Israeli public would pay the price for the release of the terrorists by having lost the power to punish and deter terrorism."