The family of Jaweed Al Ghussein, a former top PLO official who was extradited from the UAE to Palestine where he is detained, have asked the United Nations to intervene and secure his release, reported the Gulf News on Sunday.
According to Al Ghussein's son, Tawfiq, a petition has been filed with the UN in an effort to force the Palestinian Authority to free him.
Jaweed Al Ghussein, the former head of the Palestine National Fund (PNF), was detained by Abu Dhabi police in April this year on the orders of the state prosecutor and extradited to Palestine at the request of the Palestinian Authority.
The 71-year-old former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) official was wanted by the Palestinian Authority for failing to return $6.5 million he allegedly borrowed from the PNF, earlier reports said.
Tawfiq Ghussein told the Gulf News that the petition had been filed with the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the family, which lives in the UAE, by New York-based Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
The former PLO official, who has lived in the UAE since 1966 and owns the Abu Dhabi-based Cordoba Development Corp., an engineering and construction company, was arrested on April 20 at the InterContinental Hotel in the Emirati capital, where he was attending a wedding.
He was then extradited to Palestine via Egypt.
Tawfiq said he had recently spoken to his father, who sounded upbeat despite poor health.
"We spoke to him a few days ago with the help of one of Yasser Arafat's close aides who visited my father. He sounded in good spirits," said Tawfiq.
According to him, his father is detained in a private apartment in the Ramallah area.
"None of us nor his friends has been allowed to see him so far," he said.
Tawfiq said the issue had also been raised by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, which have urged the Palestinian Authority to release Ghussein – Albawaba.com
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