HADARIM PRISON, Israel (Agencies)
Israel on Thursday began transferring four Jordanians serving life sentences for killing Israeli soldiers back to their home country as a gesture to King Abdullah II.
The four were driven out of Hadarim jail near the coastal town of Netanya in a prison service van, headed for the Sheikh Hussein crossing with Jordan, where they will be handed over to Jordanian authorities.
Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition against the transfer of the four, who were sentenced by an Israeli court to life in jail for killing two Israeli soldiers in November 1990, four years before the two neighbors signed a peace treaty.
The Israeli government approved the move as a gesture of goodwill towards King Abdullah who had asked that the prisoners be allowed to complete their sentence in a Jordanian jail.
"Jordan gave Israel a commitment that the king would not pardon the four during the next 18 months," a senior government official said on Sunday.
Olmert met King Abdullah at a four-way regional summit hosted by Egypt last month aimed at bolstering Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas following the violent seizure of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist Hamas movement.
