Israel to release jailed Hamas parliament speaker

           Israel will release from prison on Tuesday the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Dweik, who was jailed following the abduction of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit three years ago. Israeli prosecutors failed to persuade a military court to extend Dweik's prison term during a hearing last Wednesday. Dweik and dozens of other Hamas politicians in the West Bank in 2006 after gunmen from the Palestinian Islamist group in the Gaza Strip abducted Shalit in a 2006 cross-border raid. The dragnet paralysed the Palestinian Legislative Council, which had been dominated by Hamas since it crushed President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed, secular Fatah faction in a parliamentary election earlier that year. The Islamists accused Israel of trying to pressure them into freeing the Shalit. Dweik, 60, has been touted by Hamas a possible contender for the presidency, though Western mediators have ruled out dealing with a Hamas political leadership that does not recognize Israel An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said that Dweik, who was sentenced to three years in prison for his ties to Hamas, would go free when the term was up, as a bid by prosecutors to keep him behind bars was rejected. (12,38)