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Press Release
PNA High State Security Court Passes Death Sentence
Date: 24 April 2002
Ref: 61/2002
On 21 April, the PNA State Security Court sentenced Nasser Mohammed Suleiman al-Qarinawi, 32, from al-Maghazi to death for the murder of Mohammed al-Aydi, 40, a lieutenant in the Palestinian civil police (case number 9/2002). Execution of the death sentence requires ratification by PNA President Yasser Arafat.
Nasser al-Qarinawi was convicted of killing al-Aydi with an automatic weapon on 13 April. Al-Aydi, married and a father of four children, was a known activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and had served eight years in Israeli prisons for killing suspected collaborators, including Jasser al-Qarinawi, brother of Nasser.
Nasser al-Qarinawi killed al-Aydi with an automatic weapon on 13 April. Soon thereafter, dozens of local residents set fire to six houses owned by members of the al-Qarinawi family, as well as a grocery store and an automobile.
PCHR is deeply concerned about this crime and strongly condemns the wanton destruction of private property. Furthermore, PCHR calls upon the PNA to:
Abolish the State Security Courts, which fail to meet minimum international standards on rights to a fair trial, and to place its cases before the civil judiciary
Abolish the death penalty, as a violation of the right to life
Uphold and safeguard the right of all suspects to minimum standards of treatment, including with regards to arrest, conditions of detention, knowledge of the charge, right to legal counsel, and the right to a fair trial by a competent body
Uphold the rule of law in PNA areas
