Monday, April 14, 2008: Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Director of Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center called upon Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, to uphold the "rule of law" by filing a criminal indictment against Member of Knesset Ahmed Tibi for his illegal visit to Lebanon on Friday - an act clearly prohibited by Israeli law .

In an urgent letter dispatched to the Attorney General, Darshan-Leitner demanded that MK Tibi be treated equally before the law while pointing out that this is hardly the first time he has broken this particular statute by visiting enemy nations, and it is not the first time that the legal authorities have chosen to ignore the act and disregard the blatant negative message this sends to the rest of the Arab population in Israel .

"We all remember what happened with former Knesset member Azmi B'Shara just a few short months ago," said Darshan-Leitner. "Time and time again he was allowed to flagrantly break the law and visit enemy countries without penalty until finally, he simply escaped from Israel and resigned in abstencia from the Knesset after realizing that enough evidence had been collected by Israeli security services to bring a case against him for actually spying on behalf of the Hizbullah terrorist organization ."

Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center calls upon the Attorney General to investigate exactly what MK Tibi was doing in Lebanon and to prosecute him for breaking the law as he would any other citizen who visited an enemy country .