Candidate says Israeli soldiers beat him

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Mustafa Barghouti, a long-shot candidate in the Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election, said he was beaten by Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint late Wednesday. An Israeli military official disputed his account.
Barghouti, a 50-year-old physician, is a distant relative of the more well-known Marwan Barghouti, a West Bank leader of the ruling Fatah party who is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail and is running for the presidency.
Mustafa Barghouti said he was stopped at a checkpoint between Jenin and Nablus when soldiers hit one of his companions. Mustafa Barghouti said he tried to protect his companion but soldiers struck him as well. He did not say whether he was injured.
"Soldiers started cursing us and beating the people with me," Mustafa Barghouti said. "I tried to defend them and then suddenly they attacked me on the neck and the back and beat me with guns."