Aryanews-  An Israeli court on Tuesday reduced the jail sentence of a well-known Islamist leader Sheikh Raed Salah after convicting him earlier this year of "assaulting a police officer", his deputy said.
"The court refused to cancel the sentence but decided to reduce it from nine months to five months," Sheikh Kamal Khatib said, adding the sentence was set to begin on July 25.
The assault, which he has always denied, is said to have taken place during protests in and around Qud's Old City in February 2007 after Israel embarked on a construction project near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
At the time, he was accused of striking a police officer during an Israeli dig underneath the Dung Gate in the southern section of the Old City walls.
Khatib said the conviction was a "political decision" aimed at suppressing Salah's Islamic Movement, which has held several demonstrations in al- Quds during which Israeli police have clashed with Arab youths.