Five members of the Islamic Movement´s northern faction, including its leader Sheikh Raed Salah and Umm el-Fahm Mayor Suleiman Agbariya, have been remanded for a further 12 days.

The ruling was made by the Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday on the basis of evidence, including classified information, submitted by the police during the remand hearing the third since the suspects were arrested.

The five are suspected of funneling millions of dollars raised abroad via Israel to organizations affiliated with Hamas in the territories. Some of the money was allegedly used to support families of so-called martyrs.

Lawyers representing the five argued in vain that there was insufficient evidence to justify a further custodial remand, and they should therefore be released.

All together, 17 members of the movement´s northern branch have been arrested following a two-year-long covert inquiry by police and the Shin Bet. Most of the other suspects have since been released to house arrest.

Hundreds of supporters, many waving the green flags of the Islamic Movement and holding aloft pictures of Salah, demonstrated outside the court building during the remand hearing.

Several Arab politicians also participated in the demonstration, in line with a call made by the monitoring committee of the Israeli Arab leadership, which is composed of Arab MKs, council heads, and prominent public figures.

The monitoring committee is scheduled to hold a press conference on the issue later this week and is also organizing a rally to be held in Umm el-Fahm on Friday.

"The Islamic Movement, including the northern faction, is an integral and vibrant part of the Israeli Arab community," said monitoring committee spokesman Abed Inbitawi. "It is a legitimate movement that plays an active and positive role in the Arab community. We see [the arrests] as a blow not just to the Islamic Movement but to the whole of the Arab community and its leadership."

"We see this as a political message that the government wants to relay through these arrests, and we don´t believe that there are any security offenses or indeed any real legal basis for the arrests," said Inbitawi. (© 1995-2003, The Jerusalem Post 06/08/03)