Deri wins early jail release

Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, won early release yesterday from prison, where he has been serving a three-year term for corruption.

The Israeli Prisons Authority parole board said it had decided to release Deri a year early on July 15, citing good behaviour as grounds for cutting his sentence by one-third in line with standard policy.

Deri, who has been allowed home leave during his incarceration at a minimum-security prison near Tel Aviv, was escorted by a crowd of singing supporters on his daily trip to a local Jewish seminary after the ruling was announced.

"I thank God first of all," Deri told reporters. He vowed to "devote a lot of time to the public...to help those at the margins of society", but did not elaborate on his plans.

A political comeback for the charismatic Deri as a coalition maker and breaker is far from certain. His position as Shas leader has since been filled by another popular young lawmaker, Eli Yishai.