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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Work for Freedom on the Second Anniversary of the
Kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat!<br><br>
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Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat<br>
<a href="http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/">
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/</a><br><br>
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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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/">
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/</a> 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! <br><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat<br>
<a href="http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/">
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/</a><br><br>
<br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
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