Olmert: 'Jerico Jail' six will go on trial

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today that six Palestinians grabbed from a West Bank prison will be charged and tried by Israel, despite Palestinian claims that the arrests were illegal.

Israel says five of the men seized in the day-long raid in Jericho yesterday were involved in the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. The sixth is the suspected financier of an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago.

Israeli legal experts had said some legal hurdles would still have to be cleared before Israel would decide whether to put the six on trial. But Olmert said there were no doubts Israel would push forward with its case.

“They will be indicted according to Israeli law and they will be punished as they deserve,” Olmert added. “No terrorist will be able to escape the justice of the state of Israel.”

The captured prisoners include Ahmed Saadat, leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed responsibility for Zeevi’s killing.

Israel’s chief prosecutor is scheduled to meet with legal advisers and defence officials in the coming days to determine whether to try Saadat and the other suspects in the Zeevi killing in a military or civil court, a justice ministry spokeswoman said.

The four gunmen believed to be directly involved in the assassination were convicted in the past by a Palestinian court, and Israeli legal experts said they would have to sort out first whether they can be tried again. In contrast, Saadat was never convicted or tried by Palestinian authorities.

Despite the legal questions, Israel intends on keeping Saadat and the others, Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni said. “I have no doubt that they will stay with us for a long time,” Livni said.

Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa demanded the immediate return of the men. “Any attempt to try them in an Israeli court would be a violation of international law,” he said. He did not elaborate.

Kate Maynard, a British lawyer representing Saadat, said in a telephone interview from London that she was trying to get access to Saadat and ensure his safety.

“I don’t know anything about the Israeli criminal justice system, but I’m concerned that they may try to obtain unreliable evidence against my client by torture,” she said.

Zeevi, an ultranationalist who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-controlled territory, was shot dead in the hallway of a Jerusalem hotel in October 2001, and the PFLP claimed responsibility at the time.

Saadat and four PFLP activists directly involved in the killing were eventually arrested by Palestinian police.

In April 2002, a makeshift court, in which Palestinian policemen acted as judges and lawyers, hastily convened in then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s West Bank compound, sentenced the four to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years.

Saadat was not charged, but Arafat ordered Saadat held in the Jericho jail in part to get the Israelis to end a 34-day siege at Arafat’s headquarters – where the six were holed up – and apparently to protect Saadat from being targeted by Israel.

The sixth man apprehended yesterday, Fouad Shubaki, was the key suspect in a weapons-smuggling affair involving a ship that was intercepted carrying 50 tons of weapons, allegedly on its way to Palestinian areas from Iran.

Under an unusual arrangement, the Jericho jail was monitored by the US and Britain. Israel raided the compound after the foreign monitors left the building, citing safety concerns.

A former Israeli ambassador, Avi Primor, said Israel would do the “correct thing” if it put the suspects on trial. The Palestinian trials of four of the men were substandard, Primor said.

Palestinian militants today released the last four foreigners they were holding, a day after seizing them to protest at the Israeli military raid on the prison in Jericho.

Palestinian security officials escorted the four hostages, including a South Korean journalist, two French citizens and a Canadian aid worker, into the headquarters of the Palestinian preventive security agency in Gaza City.

Security officials had worked through the night to secure their release.

The hostages, all unharmed, called their families before leaving for Israel, escorted by diplomats and representatives of the Red Cross.

“I am feeling tired. I want to go home to take a shower and sleep,” said Adam Budzanowski, the Canadian, who said he has been working in Gaza to provide job and education opportunities for Palestinians. He declined to discuss how he was treated.

Gunman affiliated with the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine seized a total of 11 foreigners after yesterday’s raid. Most of the hostages were quickly released unharmed.