U2 frontman Bono has come out in support of freedom for Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who is currently serving five life sentences plus 40 years in an Israeli jail.

Barghouti (66) has served as an elected legislator and has been a prominent advocate of a two-state solution. He has frequently been named in polls as a preferred candidate for Palestinian president, a position which has been held by 90-year-old Mahmoud Abbas for 21 years since the death of Yasser Arafat.

Calling for Barghouti’s release, Bono echoed comments from the independent group of global leaders, the Elders, that Barghouti could become a credible peace partner for negotiations with Israel and a crucial figure in achieving a two-state solution.

Writing in the US magazine The Atlantic, Bono said his views on peace processes had evolved since he thought of peace as something involving pageantry “doves, olive branches, handshakes, signing ceremonies.”

He said although it has sometimes been difficult to accept, “credibility accrues to those who stood at the barricades, who risked their lives for the cause, and – sorry to say it, but this is the world as it is – who committed or at least condoned acts of violence.”

He said he now appreciates, particularly when reflecting on the Irish Peace Process, that “without the assent of the war-makers, there is no peacemaking”.

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Bono also compared Barghouti’s potential release with that of Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa before being released and working with then president F W de Klerk on efforts to end apartheid in that country.

Barghouti was indicted on 26 counts of murder in 2004 and convicted of five in a trial in which he refused to participate, citing the Israeli civilian court’s lack of jurisdiction over him as a Palestinian West Bank resident. He was an important Fatah leader during the Second Intifada, a wave of protest and violence in the early 2000s.

He has said that he opposes attacks on civilians in Israel but defends a Palestinian right to armed resistance to Israeli occupation.

Bono said “there were and still are grave concerns about the legitimacy of his [Barghouti’s] trial – the Inter-Parliamentary Union found that it breached international laws – and a growing outcry about the horrific conditions of his captivity”.

“Many Israelis disdain Barghouti, but a pragmatic streak might currently be asserting itself. The former head of the Mossad, Efraim Halevy, called Barghouti ‘probably the most sane and the most qualified person’ to lead the Palestinians.

“Ami Ayalon, the former director of the intelligence service Shin Bet, sees Barghouti as ‘the only leader who can lead Palestinians to a state alongside Israel. First of all because he believes in the concept of two states, and secondly because he won his legitimacy by sitting in our jails’.”

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