A prominent Palestinian businessman, who for years ran the Palestine Liberation Organization’s finances, has been arrested in the Gulf and extradited to Gaza, where he faces possible execution after being accused of corruption by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, his childhood friend and former ally, according to The Times on Monday.
In a move that threatens seriously to divide the Palestinian community and reopen allegations of corruption among its leaders, Jaweed al-Ghussein, 70, was arrested at his home in Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Friday. On Sunday night, he rang his wife to say that he was being secretly moved to Gaza, where he was in the custody of the Palestinian Authority.
His family said that it feared he could be put before "a kangaroo court" and may face the death penalty. Recently a number of Palestinians, allegedly caught collaborating with Israel, have been arrested, tried and shot by firing squad under the orders of Arafat.
According to the report, a campaign was launched by influential friends of al-Ghussein to secure his release. It said King Abdullah of Jordan has intervened and appeals are expected from the Kuwaitis and other Arab governments. Britain and the United States are also expected to receive calls for help and may be asked to provide political asylum.
"We fear the worst," Mona Bauwens, al-Ghussein's daughter, told the paper in London. "My father is a diabetic and has a heart problem. He has been arrested without charge and he is being used as a scapegoat by the Palestinian Authority. We are appealing to anyone who can help to intervene and secure his release before it is too late.”
Mr al-Ghussein, who comes from a prominent Palestinian family, was a schoolfriend of Mr Arafat's and has been closely linked to the PLO for most of his life. For 12 years he served as a member of the PLO's executive committee and as chairman of the Palestine National Fund. In effect he controlled much of the finance for the PLO's government-in-exile, which collected taxes from the Palestinian Diaspora and donations from sympathetic governments and funded everything from Palestinian embassies to scholarships for students to study abroad.
He fell out with Arafat during the Gulf War when he was one of the few Palestinian leaders to condemn Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. He also revealed the existence of hidden accounts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, to which, allegedly, only Arafat had access, according to The Times.
Although he retired from politics to run a construction business in the United Arab Emirates, he has been embroiled in a long financial dispute with the Palestinian Authority, which stripped him of his citizenship and pressured the UAE authorities to extradite him to Gaza to stand trial for corruption.
Tawfiq, Mr al-Ghussein's son, said yesterday that his father had been cleared already by a court in the UAE. He said that this action against his father was an attempt by Arafat to deflect criticism of corrupt practices within the Palestinian Authority and to intimidate its critics.
"They have resorted to tactics to distract from the important issues instead of concentrating on remedying the agony that the Palestinians are suffering due to their ineffective and corrupt government," he said in a statement from Abu Dhabi – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
