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'13 Palestinians flown to Cyprus are free men'

AP, Nicosia
The 13 Palestinian militants flown to Cyprus after a five-week Israeli siege in Bethlehem are free men, not prisoners and not deportees, the European Union's envoy to the Middle East said yesterday.
Miguel Moratinos was speaking to reporters after calling on Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides to thank Cyprus for agreeing to host the 13 Palestinians for a few days while the EU finds countries for them to stay in exile.
The 13 gunmen, whom Israel regards as terrorists, left the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on the West Bank on Friday. Israeli authorities put them a British military aircraft that flew them to Cyprus.
Twelve of the men are now staying under police guard at a beach front hotel in the southeastern city of Larnaca. The thirteenth is in Larnaca hospital being treated for
a broken leg caused by a bullet wound.
Their deportation was part of a deal worked out with the United States and European Union to end Israel's five-week siege of the church. Under the arrangement, the more than 120 people holed up in the church were allowed to leave, with 26 Palestinians being banished to Gaza and the 13 militants sent into exile, and Israel withdrew its troops from the biblical town, ending a six-week offensive in the West Bank.
"I want to underline this point," Moratinos said. "They are not prisoners. They are not detained people. They have signed on a personal basis an agreement to go to a third country.
"They came here on a voluntary basis. It was not a deportation," Moratinos added.
In Rome on Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said
Israel reserved the right to seek the extradition of the 13 Palestinians.
When asked whether Israel would exercise that right, Peres said it would "depend upon the circumstances." He suggested that if the men were set free, Israel might try to bring them back for trial.
The legal status of the Palestinians has not been worked out. It is not clear if the suspected militants will be free or confined in some way after they settle in EU states.
Peres said it was up to the host countries to decide what to do with the men, but that Israel hoped the governments "will do the necessary things so (the Palestinians) will not create some troubles or cause some harm."
The Palestinian representative to Cyprus, Samir Abu Ghazaleh, told reporters it was extremely unlikely that the men would be extradited to Israel.