Arafat's moneyman targeted

Ramallah:  The late Yasser Arafat's powerful moneyman is the target of the highest-profile Palestinian corruption probe to date, facing allegations he syphoned off millions of dollars in public funds, the chief investigator has said.

Anti-corruption campaigners lauded the case against the shadowy former aide, Mohammad Rashid, as a sign of the maturing of the Palestinian political system, although the probe also appeared to be tinged with political intrigue.

Rashid, who has in the past denied wrongdoing, made veiled threats on a website to disclose purported secrets about the rise to power of Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

And Palestinian watchdogs, while praising growing government vigilance about corruption, expressed concern that such investigations are at times being used selectively to settle personal scores.

Business interests

The tall, dark-haired Rashid left the Palestinian territories after Arafat's death in November 2004, and his current whereabouts were not immediately known. Rafik Natche, head of the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission, said Rashid holds business interests in Jordan, Egypt, Montenegro, Iraq and a Gulf country, and that the Palestinian National Authority has asked all five countries to freeze his assets and extradite him.

Rashid "came to the Palestinian revolution without a penny in his pocket and became a multimillionaire," Natche said. "Where did he bring his money from? Of course, this is the money of the Palestinian people."

Natche said Rashid is suspected of having taken millions of dollars out of the Palestinian Investment Fund and the PLO's treasury, as well as setting up fake companies in his name and in the names of relatives. "The money and the companies disappeared," Natche said, citing documents.

In comments posted Tuesday on the website Inlightpress, Rashid said he would not respond to the allegations now, but warned that Abbas "made a huge mistake and must suffer the consequences."

He did not elaborate. The website, which is believed to be linked to Rashid, announced in a separate section that it would soon run a series of articles by Rashid about the circumstances of Abbas' rise to power.

Low profile

After keeping a low profile for years, Rashid started drawing attention to himself with a series of interviews that the Arab satellite TV station Al Arabiya began broadcasting last week. Rashid told the station he was asked by Palestinian officials in 2008 to provide documents about the investment fund, and that he told them the documents were at the fund's office.

The first decade of the PNA was marked by rampant corruption and official mismanagement.

During those years, Rashid "ran a network of financial transactions outside the law and outside the budget," said Azmi Shuaibi, a leading anti-corruption campaigner in the West Bank.

Financial dealings

An Iraqi citizen of Kurdish ancestry, Rashid befriended top PLO officials in the 1980s.

From the 1994 establishment of the Palestinian National Authority to Arafat's death a decade later, Rashid was in charge of many of the Palestinian leader's financial dealings. The iconic Arafat was known for a frugal lifestyle, but needed large sums to buy loyalty and allowed corrupt practices by those in his inner circle. It is not known why Arafat put Rashid, a former journalist without formal business training, in charge of most of his business affairs.