HTML clipboard
Ref: 7/2002
Date: 17 January 2002
PCHR is deeply concerned about the arrest of Mr. Ahmed Sa’adat, the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – the second-ranked faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) – by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
According to information PCHR received, at 18:30 on Tuesday, 15 January, units of Palestinian security services arrested Mr. Sa’adat at the City Inn Hotel in Al-Bireh. Sa’adat and a PFLP leader in Ramallah, Bashir El-Kahiri, were meeting with Brigadier General Tawfi Tirawi, head of the Palestinian General Intelligence in the West Bank, upon an official request by the latter. These units entered the hotel and took Mr. Sa’adat to an unknown destination.
The arrest of Mr. Sa’adat, the highest-ranked politician arrested by the PNA comes in response to heavy US and Israeli pressure, including the siege imposed on President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and the prohibition of his movement. Israel claims that Mr. Sa’adat is responsible for the killing of the Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi on 17 October, in what the PFLP considered a retaliation for the assassination of its Secretary General, Abu Ali Mustafa, on 27 August.
The arrest of Mr. Sa’adat came as part of a series of political arrests by the PNA against the Palestinian nationalist and Islamic opposition, in response to pressure exerted by Israel and the US administration on the PNA to make arrests regardless of due process or human rights standards. Although the PNA is pressured to arrest Mr. Sa’adat without due process, accused war criminal Ariel Sharon and his government openly ordered and support the assassination of Abu ‘Ali Mustafa without facing any accountability.
PCHR condemns the stark double standard imposed by the US and EU, which deprives Palestinians of their legitimate right to resist the Israeli occupation, while encouraging Israeli occupation forces to perpetrate violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes such as assassinations and extra-judicial killings and wanton destruction of houses and property.
PCHR condemns the arrest of Mr. Sa’adat, which constitutes an unprecedented measure by the PNA, and calls upon the PNA to:
1. Immediately release the Secretary General of the PFLP Mr. Ahmed Sa’adat and all other political detainees;
2. Put an end to political arrests; and
3. Promote the rule of law and follow legal procedures in arrests.
