Militants charged over assassination of Israeli minister

An Israeli court today charged four Palestinian militants over the assassination of a Cabinet minister, two months after snatching the men in a brazen military raid on a Palestinian jail in the West Bank.

The suspects, members of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, did not speak during today’s court appearance in Jerusalem.

The men were rounded up during a 10-hour Israeli invasion of a Palestinian prison in Jericho on March 14. Israel launched the operation after the new Hamas-led Palestinian government said it would release the men.

The suspects are accused of carrying out the murder of Rehavam Zeevi at a Jerusalem hotel in 2001.

PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat was also arrested in the March raid. But Israel’s attorney general has said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute him in the Zeevi killing. Saadat remains in Israeli custody.