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Ahmad Saadat




Ahmad Sa'adat (also transliterated from politician, and Secretary-General of the Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (PFLP).

The PFLP stands for the destruction of Israel, rejects the Oslo Peace Process and demands the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their decendants into all parts of the former British mandate Palestine. Saadat took over as leader of the PFLP in October 2001. He stands for a more radical position within the PFLP.

He was imprisoned in Jericho by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 2002. In March 2006 Israeli forces attacked the jail and took Sa'adat to Israel; he is currently in Israeli custody.

Sa'adat succeeded Abu Ali Mustafa to the post in 2001, after he was Assassinated by Israel at his office in Ramallah on the West Bank .

The PFLP has assumed responsibility for the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on October 17, 2001, shortly after Saadat became the new leader. Sa'adat was accused by Israel of organizing the assassination. He took refuge in the Muqata'a headquarters of PLO leader Yassir Arafat , who refused to hand him over to Israel. Israel, on the other hand, refused to back down from its arrest order.

After negotiations involving the United States Of America and the United Kingdom , an agreement was reached in between Israel and the PNA. Israel called off the siege of the Muqata'a, and Sa'adat was arrested, given a military trial and put in a Palestinian jail in Jericho , with a force of US and British guards overseeing his captivity. {Link without Title} He was not allowed to run for political office, give interviews or address the public, although these bans were sometimes been circumvented or ignored. (See Ma'an interview below.)

The Palestinian Supreme Court declared that Sa'adat's imprisonment was unconstitutional, and ordered his release, but the PNA refused to comply. Amnesty International has declared that this, and the fact that he received an unfair trial, makes his detention illegal, and that he must either be charged with a crime and given due process, or released. {Link without Title}

On Tuesday, March 14, 2006, the US and Britain withdrew monitors from the Jericho jail where Saadat was being held. The prison was then surrounded by Israeli forces who claimed to prevent the escape of Saadat. In the ensuing stand-off, Palestinian guards left the prison but 200 prisoners refused to surrender.

After daylong shelling by Israeli tanks in which three Palestinian civilians were killed, Israeli military forces took Sa'adat and five other inmates into custody. After his arrest, he was interrogated by the Israeli Shabak . As of March 16, it has not been decided whether Sa'adat and the other suspects will stand for trial in a regular Israeli court or a military tribunal.


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