Ahmad Sa'adat

Ahmad Sa'adat (also transliterated from Arabic as Ahmed Sadat/Saadat, Arabic: احمد سعدات)(born 1954) is a Palestinian politician, and Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Saadat took over as leader of the PFLP in October 2001. He stands for a more radical position within the PFLP, encouraging the dismantling of Israel as a soveriegn state, rejecting the Oslo Peace Process and demanding the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants into all parts of the former British mandate Palestine.

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 US and the UK, 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. He was not allowed to run for political office, give interviews or address the public, although these bans were occasionally circumvented or ignored.

The Palestinian Supreme Court declared that Sa'adat's imprisonment was unconstitutional, and ordered his release, but the PNA has 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. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE150962002]

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 ten hours of shelling by Israeli tanks [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187771,00.html] - 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 2006, it had not been decided whether Sa'adat and the other suspects will stand for trial in a regular Israeli court or a military tribunal.

External links

* [http://www.maannews.net/en/do.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6305 Interview with Ahmed Sa'adat] - Ma'an News, January 3, 2006.
* [http://indybay.org/uploads/2003/11/09/letter_from_ahmad_saadat.pdf Letter from Ahmad Saadat at Jericho Prison]
* [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187771,00.html AP Report: Israeli Assault on Palestinian Prison]