London, Sept 14 (IRNA) An all-party group of British MPs have uniquely joined together in a united demand for the Zionist regime to immediately release members of the Palestinian Legislative Council it is holding as hostages for more than two months.

"We consider the imprisonment of democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian Authority as an attack on the fundamental principles of democracy," the group of 27 MPs said.

Israel kidnapped over 30 Palestinian legislators, including four cabinet ministers, at the end of July. It also subsequently abducted the speaker of the Palestinian legislature, Abdel Aziz Duaik, and the deputy prime minister, Nasser Shaer.

The Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world's oldest multilateral political organization, has already expressed its alarm at the detentions and demanded their immediate release.

In a letter published in the Guardian newspaper Wednesday, the British MPs said that they supported the demand by the IPU that the Palestinian parliamentarians be "released immediately."
"The Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 were declared as fair by international observers," said the letter, which included former International Development secretary Clare Short amongst its signatories.

It also quoted former US president Jimmy Carter describing the elections as "among the best in portraying the will of the people" among the 62 elections that have been monitored by his center.