BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The Jewish mother of a Lebanese prisoner in Israel admonished Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah for omitting her son in a swap deal with the Jewish state.
"I could not help feel reproach for the secretary general of Hezbollah because he did not negotiate with the Israelis to secure the liberation of Naseem, who belonged to the resistance movement and worked for the sake of liberating the south," Valentine Sayegh Nasr said in an interview with Beirut's daily As-Safir.
Naseem Nasr, who holds dual Lebanese and Israeli nationalities because he has a Jewish mother and Lebanese father, was sentenced in 2002 to seven years in prison in Israel on charges of collaborating with Hezbollah.
"Naseem is the son of Bazourieh which is the village of Hassan Nasrallah ... He worked with the resistance and we are proud of him because he struggled for the sake of his country, Lebanon, " the mother said.
Nasrallah said in a press conference Sunday that Israel refused to include Naseem Nasr in the swap deal because he held Israeli nationality.
Naseem immigrated to Israel several years ago and married a Russian Jew. His six brothers and sisters remained in Lebanon.
