A former top PLO official's family blames the Palestinian Authority of abducting him from an Egyptian hospital to the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority has been accusing Jaweed al-Ghussein of embezzling millions of dollars during his time as head of the PLO's Finance Ministry. Al-Ghussein is said to owe the Palestinian Authority an estimated amount of 13 million dollars, borrowed from the Palestinian National Fund, which he ran from Abu Dhabi between the years 1982 and 1993.
Last October, he was arrested but refused to go to Palestine for trial. Al Ghussein was put under house arrest in Gaza, but was permitted to go to Cairo a few days ago for treatment, under the condition he returns to Palestine.
His daughter, Mona Bauwens, said that a dozen Palestinian agents stormed the Palestine Hospital in Cairo where her ill father was being treated for cancer and took him by force. Hospital Sources told AP that Palestinian President Arafat’s brother, Fathi, runs the hospital.
The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted Ms Bauwens as saying "The Authority's chief of protocol, Saeed Allam, was behind the abduction." However, the Palestinian representative to the Arab League in Cairo, Mohammed Sobeih, said that al-Ghussein had gone to Gaza willingly. "He asked for medical treatment, he received it, he agreed to return, and he returned to discuss how he will pay back the money," Sobeih added. (Albawaba.com)
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