Campaign steps up calls for release of 'Palestine's Mandela'

A global campaign is being launched to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner seen by many observers as the best candidate to lead a future Palestinian state, as negotiations continue in the context of the current ceasefire.

- Patrick Wintour

The campaign, being led by Barghouti's West Bank-based family with UK civil society support, is seeking to put the 66-year-old's fate at the centre of the next stage of the ceasefire.

Successive opinion polls show he is the most popular Palestinian politician in Gaza and the West Bank. Murals with the words Free Marwan, coordinated by Calum Hall, the founder of Creative Debuts, a creative consultancy and art platform, have started to appear in London, and a huge public art installation appeared in Kobar village, near Ramallah. A letter calling for his release from a range of political and cultural figures is expected to be released next week.

Barghouti has been kept in jail by Israel for more than 20 years after being convicted of planning attacks that led to five civilians being killed, and sentenced to five life sentences plus 40 years. The trial was criticised as deeply flawed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.