Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday issued a presidential decree releasing officer Osama Mansour after a Ramallah military court sentenced him to a year in prison for a Facebook post critical of Abbas.
Mansour, who served as the director of public relations and media at the Palestinian military liaison – a unit with the Palestinian security forces responsible for coordinating security with Israel – was detained on 1 October for publishing a Facebook post asking Abbas to reconsider his decision to attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Yesterday, a Palestinian military court in Ramallah ordered that Mansour be sentenced to a year in prison and have his military rank suspended for “disobeying orders”.
However, Abbas decreed that same day that Mansour be retired from security forces instead of serving time in prison.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has come under fire for cracking down on Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory criticising the Palestinian government.