Under the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, the world’s longest-serving political prisoner was released from an Israeli prison on Thursday (February 27). After spending 44 years in prison, Nail Barghouti has finally regained his freedom. Over the years, he has become one of the most prominent figures in the Palestinian prisoner movement.
Barghouti was born on October 23, 1957, in the town of Kobar, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. He was first arrested in 1978 and sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in attacks on Israeli targets.
As a member of the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Barghouti was released in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. However, his freedom was short-lived. In 2014, Israel re-arrested him on June 18 and sentenced him to 30 months in prison.
After completing his sentence, Israel reinstated his original life sentence and added another 18 years of imprisonment, citing a “secret file.” This sentence was also imposed on several other prisoners who had been released under the same deal. Barghouti has now entered the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving political prisoner in history.
In 2021, Barghouti lost his brother, who was widely known as Abu Asif. Israeli authorities did not allow him to attend his brother’s funeral, just as they had previously denied him permission to attend his parents’ funerals.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission, Barghouti endured “systematic torture, solitary confinement, abuse, and mistreatment” during his imprisonment.
As part of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been released in exchange for 25 Israeli hostages and eight bodies returned to Israel. According to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports, Israel estimates that 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, while more than 10,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israeli jails.