[Ppnews] Palestine - Second Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat!

[Political Prisoner News]

Work for Freedom on the Second Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat!


Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/

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March 14, 2008 is the second anniversary of the siege on Jericho 
prison and the kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades by the 
Israeli occupation army. On this date in 2006, the Israeli army laid 
siege for twelve hours to the Palestinian prison at Jericho holding 
six political prisoners. Israeli bulldozers and tanks attacked the 
prison while the Israeli military issued threats of assassination 
against the prisoners. This military assault caused the death of two 
Palestinians, the injury of twenty-three more, and the abduction of 
Ahmad Sa'adat and five other political prisoners from Jericho to 
Zionist prisons.

With his abduction, Sa'adat joined over 11,000 Palestinian political 
prisoners held in the depths of the prisons of the occupation, 
including many Palestinian national leaders and elected representatives.

For over four years, these men had been held in the Palestinian 
Authority prison at Jericho, under U.S. and British guards. 
Immediately prior to the Israeli assault on the prison, these U.S. 
and British guards abandoned their posts, clearing the way for the 
military attack. The U.S. State Department blamed Palestinians for 
the siege, stating that the democratically-elected Palestinian 
Legislative Council leadership had indicated its willingness to 
release these illegally-held political prisoners. Said Sa'adat in a 
letter to the Palestinian people after his abduction, "The Quartet 
[US, EU, Russia and UN] provide a cover for occupation. What happened 
in Jericho Prison has made the British and US governments an integral 
part of the conflict and forever buried any illusions in their neutrality."

Since his abduction - a blatant violation of Palestinian sovereignty 
- Sa'adat's trial has been repeatedly postponed and delayed. Israeli 
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz admitted shortly following the 
abduction that there was insufficient evidence to indict Sa'adat in 
the assassination of extreme racist Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi 
in 2001, an act of retaliation for the August 2001 Israeli murder of 
PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa. Instead, Sa'adat was indicted 
on a wide array of political charges in a hearing on March 28, 2006 
at Ofer Military Base in Ramallah.

Sa'adat has consistently and repeatedly refused to recognize the 
legitimacy of the illegitimate court; his lawyers have petitioned for 
the charges to be dropped, as they are clearly politically motivated 
and the court itself is illegitmate. His trial has been repeatedly 
postponed, from May 2006, to September 2006, to January 2007, and now 
through March 2008. With each hearing, Sa'adat's courageous refusal 
to recognize in any way the illegitimate court - refusing to stand 
for the military judges, issuing statements exposing this mockery of 
justice, and refusing to deal with the military courts or 
interrogators - stand in clear contrast to the system of occupation 
and oppression represented by the military courts, exposing its 
bankruptcy and illegitimacy.

Sa'adat's abduction made clear the full participation of the U.S. and 
British governments and their full complicity in the crimes of the 
occupation against the Palestinian people. Indeed, his case is a 
paradigmatic example of the continuous war waged upon the Palestinian 
resistance, using any and all mechanisms available on an 
international level to repress the struggle of the Palestinian people 
for liberation.

On this anniversary, it is vital that we act to free Ahmad Sa'adat 
and all Palestinian political prisoners, with events, activities, 
statements and actions. Visit our website at 
<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/ to 
send a letter to human rights organizations and get resources and 
materials to promote this campaign in your area. Ahmad Sa'adat and 
11,000 Palestinian political prisoners are facing the full assault, 
once more, of the occupation - now is the time to stand with the 
prisoners of freedom and work to free Ahmad Sa'adat and all 
Palestinian prisoners!

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/



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