Israel on Wednesday freed nine Hamas lawmakers who were arrested after the capture of an Israeli soldier in 2006, a local prisoner rights group said.

The nine members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) have completed their 40-month detention sentence, according to the group.

Israel arrested more than 40 members of the Hamas-dominated PLCin the West Bank in 2006 in response to the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli corporal, by Hamas in a cross-border raid in southeast Gaza Strip.

Nasser Abdel Jawwad, one of the freed lawmakers, told Xinhua that he and his colleagues have been released because they have served their sentence term, who stressed their release was "not linked to any other issue, especially the prisoner exchange talks" between Hamas and Israel.

With the release of the nine, there are still more than 20 Hamas lawmakers remaining in custody, the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Hamas said its demand for freeing Shalit has not been changed. They want Israel to release more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in exchange for Shalit.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2009)