How serious is the PA about reform? The case of detained PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat is viewed by many Palestinians as a litmus test. Sherine Bahaa reports
Ahmed Saadat, known among his comrades as Abu Ghassan, used to say that it was only natural for the general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to be a wanted man. When he said that, Saadat of course meant "wanted" by the Israeli forces; it had probably never crossed his mind that he would one day be detained by Palestinian Authority (PA) security bodies.
Saadat was arrested on 15 January after he was summoned to the office of the head of Palestinian intelligence at Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah. Israel insisted that Saadat was involved in the plot to assassinate extremist Israeli Tourism Minister Rehevam Zeevi, who was killed last October. The PFLP had claimed responsibility for Zeevi's killing in revenge for the assassination of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed by Israeli missiles while in his office in Ramallah nearly a year ago.
After Israel's reoccupation of Ramallah on 29 March, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted he would not lift the siege imposed on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's headquarters until Saadat, four PFLP members suspected of directly planning and carrying out Zeevi's killing and a top Palestinian officer allegedly involved in coordinating an arms shipment to the PA, were handed over to Israel. To break the deadlock, the six were transferred to a Palestinian prison in Jericho where they remain under the supervision of US and British officers. While the four involved in Zeevi's killing were convicted by a Palestinian court and received prison terms ranging between one and 18 years, Arafat said that it was up to the Palestinian judiciary to decide the fate of Saadat and the other officer, Fouad Shobaki.
In a brief session held earlier this month, the High Court of Justice in Gaza ordered Saadat's release because there was no evidence against him, but the PA refrained from implementing the ruling due to US and Israeli pressure....
[The full article is available at <http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/591/re3.htm>.] -- Yoshie
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