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<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75BA5282-0408-4F36-8F48-7DB732479915.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75BA5282-0408-4F36-8F48-7DB732479915.htm<br>
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</a>Israeli court denies Ahmed Saadat bail<br><br>
Monday 27 March 2006 8:18 PM GMT <br><br>
<b>An Israeli military court has turned down a request for bail by Ahmed
Saadat, a Palestinian resistance fighter snatched earlier this month from
a Palestinian prison.<br><br>
</b></font><font size=2>Led past reporters into court, manacled hand and
foot, Saadat raised his hands in a gesture of defiance and shouted in
Arabic, "I am fighting occupation!" before he was silenced by
guards and led into the closed courtroom.<br><br>
Saadat is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine.<br><br>
Saadat and four of his alleged accomplices in the 2001 assassination of
Rehavam Zeevi, an Israeli cabinet minister, were seized in an army swoop
on Jericho prison. At his brief court appearance Saadat refused to
recognise the military tribunal's authority to try him and the judge, in
turn, refused to hear his bail application.<br><br>
The Israeli army stormed the prison on 14 March, two weeks before
Israel's general election. The raid boosted Ehud Olmert, the acting
Israeli prime minister's image as a tough-minded leader. <br><br>
Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli defence minister and a member of Olmert's
centrist Kadima party, dismissed allegations that the operation, which
involved 1000 troops, was timed to win over hardline voters.<br><br>
But the raid angered Palestinians, and embarrassed Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian president, who labeled it an "unforgivable crime"
and "an insult to the Palestinian people".<br><br>
The raid triggered unprecedented Palestinian reprisals against
foreigners, because British wardens - who along with American monitors
had supervised the Jericho prisoners under an unusual 2002 arrangement -
left their posts just before Israeli troops arrived.<br><br>
Armed men vandalised Western offices and kidnapped 11 foreigners,
including an American university professor. All were released within a
day.<br><br>
<br>
</font><font size=3>You can find this article at:<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75BA5282-0408-4F36-8F48-7DB732479915.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/75BA5282-0408-4F36-8F48-7DB732479915.htm</a>
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