The Diplomat
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid contacted his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, yesterday to confirm that Spanish aid worker Juana Ruiz will be released today.
“I thank Israeli Minister Yair Lapid for his call confirming the release tomorrow of Spanish aid worker Juana Ruiz,” Albares stated through his official Twitter account. “I would also like to thank the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who have worked to provide consular assistance throughout these months.”
After her release was confirmed, the Minister had a telephone conversation with the Spanish aid worker, to whom he expressed his satisfaction at her release. Juan Ruiz was already in the West Bank and had just met with his family after being accompanied by Spanish diplomatic personnel. In her conversation with Minister Albares, Juana Ruiz conveyed to him her “deep gratitude” for the steps taken by the Spanish government for her release, as well as her desire to meet in person with the minister himself. Ruiz was “very happy” for the solidarity in Spain which, according to what her children have told her, has been fundamental for the process, according to the Ministry.
The 63-year-old humanitarian worker, a resident of the occupied Palestinian territories since the 1980s, was arrested on April 13, 2021, by Israeli security forces near her home in Bethlehem. After being held for nearly a month without formal charges, she served seven months in pre-trial detention in a Haifa prison in northern Israel, charged with a total of five counts, three in connection with her work for the NGO Health Work Committees (HWC), declared legal in Israel, and two others for allegedly smuggling money into the Palestinian territories and for allegedly receiving funds under false pretenses.
Israel applied military law to her, as it does to Palestinians in the West Bank. Finally, an Israeli military court sentenced her on November 17 to 13 months in prison and a 14,000 euro fine after Ruiz accepted a plea agreement with the country’s prosecution to plead guilty to “providing services to an illegal organization.”
Based on that deal, the charges were reduced from five to two: “receiving money and smuggling it illegally” into the West Bank and “providing services to an illegal organization,” for his work with HWC, an NGO that Israel accuses of diverting European money to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is also classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. During the brief trial, the Israeli military judge clarified, as requested by the defense, that Ruiz had no knowledge of the funds being diverted to the PFLP.
Finally, a prison committee decided last week to grant her parole, a decision that was accepted by the prosecution. Once released, Juana Ruiz went to the West Bank, where she was attended by the Spanish Vice Consul General in Jerusalem and received by her family, resident in Bethlehem.
During the months in which she remained imprisoned, both the Embassy and the Consulate General of Spain in Jerusalem followed “closely” the case to provide consular assistance to Juana Ruiz and the Government insisted on asking the Israeli authorities to comply “with their obligations” and to guarantee “the right of defense of Juana Ruiz”. Besides, José Manuel Albares already discussed the case in his first telephone contact with Yair Lapid, on July 22, 2021.
