Region | Palestinian Territories
Sa'adat denies hand in killing of minister
A Palestinian militant leader seized by Israel in a raid on a West Bank jail denied any responsibility for his group's 2001 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister, his lawyer said yesterday.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 March 17, 2006
Ramallah: A Palestinian militant leader seized by Israel in a raid on a West Bank jail denied any responsibility for his group's 2001 assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister, his lawyer said yesterday.
"I reject the accusations," Ahmad Sa'adat was quoted as saying by his attorney, who met the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) chief at an Israeli detention centre in occupied Jerusalem.
Israel has said Sa'adat, taken into custody during a raid on a Jericho prison on Tuesday, gave the orders for the killing of cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi. The PFLP said it shot Zeevi to avenge Israel's killing of one of its leaders.
Four members of a PFLP cell convicted by a Palestinian court in 2002 of carrying out the assassination were also seized by Israeli troops at the jail after a day-long siege.
Sa'adat was jailed by the Palestinians in connection with the assassination but was never convicted of the charge.
At a news conference Sa'adat's attorney, Mahmoud Hassan, relayed defiant comments he said his client made to Israeli interrogators.
"I told the interrogators I do not recognise any interrogation," Hassan quoted Sa'adat, 51, as saying. "This is illegal. I rejected my presence in their jails as illegal."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told a separate news conference he had asked the United States and Britain to press Israel to hand "the abducted men" back to the Palestinian National Authority immediately rather than put them on trial.
Under a 1995 interim peace deal, Israel cannot re-try Palestinians if they have already been tried by a Palestinian court for the same offence, he said.
Israeli forces besieged the Jericho prison, where Sa'adat had been held since 2002 under an international agreement, to bring him to Israel for trial after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was prepared to free him.
The troops moved in minutes after US and British monitors supervising Sa'adat's incarceration left the jail. The United States and Britain said they had told Abbas a week ago the monitors could be withdrawn immediately, but both denied any coordination with Israel over its raid.
Abbas described the Israeli operation as a crime that would not be forgiven.
US Consul-General Jacob Walles met Abbas yesterday and told reporters: "We explained the reasons why we removed the monitors, which was because of our concerns about their security, and he expressed his concerns over the event."
The monitors were stationed at the jail under an arrangement that ended a 2002 Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Sa'adat and the other PFLP men were taking refuge.
60 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody
About 60 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody following a massive army raid on a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho, Palestinian interior minister Nasr Yousuf said yesterday.
"Sixty-one prisoners are in Israeli hands," the minister told reporters as he toured the site of the destroyed prison compound in Jericho. "We call on Israel to release all the prisoners."
Troops besieged the jail on Tuesday to arrest leader of the Popular Front of Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Sa'adat, who allegedly masterminded the 2001 killing of an Israeli cabinet minister, and five other militants. Israeli General Yair Naveh said 280 Palestinians had been detained during the raid, the majority of them police officers.
A punch-up broke out during Yousuf's visit after PFLP members called for the minister's resignation over Sa'adat's capture and exchanged blows with Palestinian police officers, a reporter said.
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
News Editor's choice
-
Kuwait condemns Houla massacre
Arab League urged to put end to oppression of Syrian people
-
Road crashes main cause of child death in UAE
Death rate among children in car accidents in the UAE is three times higher than global average
-
Last minute ID rush is on
Expatriates in Dubai have thronged typing centres and Emirates ID registration offices to meet the May 31 registration deadline
