Israel to try captured Palestinian leader

For the first time in years, Israel will put a prominent Palestinian political leader on trial in a civilian court.

Marwan Barghouti, leader of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in the West Bank, will face charges along with four militia leaders, according to the Israeli Justice Ministry.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian was killed in a clash in Gaza early today, Palestinians said. Israeli troops entered the town of Dir al-Balah and exchanged fire with police, killing an officer, and searched houses, they said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The Barghouti trial would be the first since Israel turned control of populated Palestinian areas over to the Palestinian Authority on its creation in 1994.

Even before then, Israel preferred administrative detention - incarceration without trial - for captured Palestinian leaders suspected of violence, instead of hearings in open courtrooms.

In opting for an open trial, the Israelis apparently hope to prove that Barghouti, and by extension other Palestinian officials, were directly involved in terror attacks. Israel has often blamed Mr Arafat for violence that erupted in September 2000.

Barghouti, 43, was captured in a raid in the Ramallah area on April 15, when Israeli forces were in control of several West Bank towns and cities during a six-week incursion that had begun two weeks earlier. He has been held in Shin Bet security services lockups since then and has not been charged.

Israeli Justice Ministry spokesman Yaakov Galanti said yesterday that Barghouti would be indicted in connection with a number of attacks, but he did not list them.

Israel charges that Barghouti was the commander of Tanzim militias and had ties to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, groups that have taken responsibility for many attacks against Israelis.

Barghouti has always insisted that he is a political leader and is not involved in violence.

Israeli authorities claim that during questioning, Barghouti confessed to organising attacks, with the approval of Mr Arafat.

Barghouti’s lawyer, Jawad Boulos, has denied the claim and said his client was subjected to round-the-clock questioning and deprived of sleep for days.

An Israeli statement said the other four facing trial are Nasser Awais, commander of the Al Aqsa militia in the Nablus area; Tabet Mardawi, a leader of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin; Abas Sayed, a Hamas leader; and Nasser Abu Hamid, Al Aqsa leader in Ramallah.

In West Bank violence late yesterday, an Israeli soldier was wounded when an army vehicle ran over an explosive device near Bethlehem, the military and rescue services said.

Earlier, in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinian news photographers, one critically, Palestinians said.

Israeli defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said yesterday that in the past two weeks, Israeli forces have stopped ‘‘about 14 suicide (bombers and) three cars full of explosives’’.

In talks in Denmark yesterday, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres said Israel plans to ease restrictions that have crippled the Palestinian economy.

Mr Peres said 30,000 Palestinians would be given permission to work in Israel, and Israel would gradually release funds to the Palestinian Authority if it could be assured that the money would not finance terror attacks. Before the violence erupted, about 150,000 Palestinians worked in Israel.