The Palestinian Authority has released a Palestinian businessman from the West Bank whom it arrested after attending a US-led conference in Bahrain focused on the Palestinian economy, a family source said Sunday.
Saleh Abu Mayala was collared in Hebron by Palestinian intelligence forces in an area under PA security control, a senior PA official based in the city said on Saturday.
Palestinian officials refused to attend the summit in the Bahraini capital, Manama, and urged Arab states not to participate. But a small number of Palestinian businessmen participated in the gathering, including Abu Mayala and fellow Hebron resident and businessman Ashraf Jabari.
Jabari confirmed to The Times of Israel on Sunday that Abu Mayala had been released Saturday evening.
“What happened with the arrest was very unfortunate, but I believe this matter has come to an end,” he said. “We did not break any laws by attending the conference.”
Asked whether he was concerned about traveling to areas in the West Bank under PA security control, Jabari said he wasn’t and that he had “no fear.”
Jabari resides in a part of Hebron under Israeli security control.