The Belfast man who was detained for five days for questioning by the Israeli authorities is being deported and will leave the country on a flight to Britain this afternoon.
Mr Seán Ó Muireagáin (40) will fly to London from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport at 2.45 p.m. today. He is due back in Belfast later this evening. He was questioned about alleged republican activities.
A spokesman for the Israeli government said that they had established that Mr Ó Muireagáin was not connected to dissident republicans but said "that not all of that period [when Ó Muireagáin was in Israel] is clear."
He said the reason Mr Ó Muireagáin was held without legal representation for five days was because of the time required to check out the 50 to 60 security alerts facing Israel each day. He added that across the world, when someone was arrested on suspicion of alleged terrorist activity - as Mr Ó Muireagáin was - security forces have to interrogate them.
Mr Ó Muireagáin was arrested on Saturday at an Israeli checkpoint near Ramallah while travelling with eight other Palestinian solidarity campaigners. Travelling on a British passport as Mr John Morgan, he had dispatched a series of articles for the Belfast Irish language newspaper, Lá.
He is a well-known campaigner for the rights of Irish-speakers and the Palestinian people.Asked why Mr Muireagáin was being deported, the spokesperson said it appeared the Belfast man had breached the terms of his visa.
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