Illegal detention

Saadat: My detention is illegal 1/9/2003 By Alan Alan, Jerusalem Times, (www.jerusalem-times.net) Ahmad Saadat, 48, General Secretary of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said last Sunday his detention is illegal because the Palestinian Supreme Court has ruled that he has committed no crime and should be freed. Saadat sits in jail in the only Palestinian city not occupied by Israel, Jericho, under a U.S and British supervision. Saadat, who was already in Palestinian custody, was sent to prison in Jericho after Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached a U.S.-brokered deal in May to end the five-week army siege of Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Under the deal, Saadat and four other PFLP men suspected of involvement in the killing of the far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi in October 2001 were jailed in Jericho under U.S. and British supervision. A sixth man, Fuad al-Shobaki, a senior financial aide to Arafat, was sent to the same prison for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of weapons to Gaza in the ship Karine A that was seized by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea in January.The Palestinian Supreme Court in Gaza ruled six months ago there were no legal grounds to detain Saadat, who was never charged nor brought to trial, and that he should be freed immediately. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said in June it respects the court’s decision, however, refused to release him citing fear for his safety from Israeli attempts on his life if he walked free.”According to the court’s decision, I should be a free man. I am still under siege “Saadat, the highest-ranking jailed Palestinian official, told Reuters in an interview. “I did not ask for the Palestinian Authority’s protection. I can protect myself. I find the forced protection decision even worse than their decision to arrest me,” Saadat said. “I am a freedom fighter…What Palestinian law is this that incriminates a freedom fighter for resisting occupation?” The prisoners are watched by U.S. and British warders who have an air-conditioned office just across from Saadat’s cell and sleep in a caravan. The prisoners are free to walk in a small courtyard surrounded by a high fence with a large iron gate. “These are our boundaries,” Saadat said