[Ppnews] Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat - Leader of the PFLP

[Political Prisoner News]

The trial, scheduled to begin YESTERDAY , has been postponed to begin 
on August 1, 2007, when the military trial of Ahmad Sa'adat, General 
Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is 
scheduled to begin at Ofer Military Base in Ramallah, Palestine. This 
trial has been delayed on multiple occasions, and despite Sa'adat's 
having been held in custody, of the Palestinian Authority under U.S. 
and British Guard, and then by the Israeli military after their 
attack on Jericho Prison on March 14, 2006, he has never been tried.

He is charged with a laundry list of "security offenses," political 
in nature: for example, membership in a forbidden organization, 
holding a post in a forbidden organization, and "incitement," for a 
speech condemning the Israeli military's murder of the man who held 
his post before him, Abu Ali Mustafa. Sa'adat refuses to cooperate 
with the court, pointing out that it is an illegitimate court 
enforcing an illegal military occupation, and acting as a weapon of 
the occupation, to persecute Palestinian leaders and political 
activists and to undermine the Palestinian people's political activity.

I am writing to you to express my concern regarding the case of a 
Palestinian prisoner of conscience, Ahmad Sa'adat. Sa'adat, elected 
member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and General Secretary 
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been 
imprisoned since January 2002, first in Palestinian Authority jails 
under the guard of U.S. and British monitors, and now in an Israeli 
military prison. Sa'adat, with five other Palestinian political 
prisoners, was kidnapped from the PA prison in Jericho on March 14, 
2006, during an armed Israeli military assault on the prison waged in 
order to abduct these prisoners.

During his entire time in Palestinian Authority prisons, Sa'adat was 
never tried or charged. Sa'adat was nominally a prisoner of the 
Palestinian Authority, but was in fact guarded by U.S. and British 
guards, at the behest of Israel. The Palestinian High Court of 
Justice ruled that Sa'adat should be immediately released, as did 
numerous international human rights organizations. Following his 
election in January 2006 to the Palestinian Legislative Council, 
despite growing calls for his release, Sa'adat remained imprisoned at 
Jericho. On March 14, 2006, the U.S. and British guards assigned to 
Jericho prison abandoned their posts in order to allow for an Israeli 
military assault on the prison that ended with the capture of Sa'adat 
and five other Palestinian political prisoners, the deaths of two 
Palestinians, and the injury of 23 Palestinians.

Following the abduction of Sa'adat, the Israeli military courts 
admitted they lacked sufficient evidence to try Sa'adat under more 
serious charges, and have instead charged him with an array of 
political offenses, including membership in a prohibited organization 
(the PFLP), holding a post in a prohibited organization, and 
incitement, for delivering a speech harshly condemning the Israeli 
military's assassination of his predecessor Abu Ali Mustafa.

Sa'adat joins over 11,000 other Palestinian political prisoners, men, 
women and children, held in Israeli jails for struggling for the 
rights of their people. These 11,000 political prisoners represent 
political activists, organizers and leaders, and the systematic 
imprisonment of Palestinians has been calculated by the military 
occupation in order to disrupt Palestinian political life and extend 
the illegal military occupation.

The military courts trying Sa'adat and the other Palestinian 
prisoners are entirely institutions of the illegitimate military 
occupation. They function solely as a means of maintaining that 
occupation and repressing any and all resistance and opposition to 
its perpetuation. As such, these military courts are illegitimate 
entities of an illegal military occupation that has been condemned by 
every leading international body and human rights organization.

I am asking your organization to highlight the case of Ahmad Sa'adat 
and other Palestinian political prisoners. The situation of 
Palestinian political prisoners is a human rights crisis. Palestinian 
parliamentarians and political leaders and activists are routinely 
subject to detention and lengthy terms of imprisonment for their 
political work on behalf of their people. In order to shed light on 
their situation and create the kind of pressure that is necessary to 
ensure justice, the voices of international human rights 
organizations are desperately needed.

I am asking you to take up the case of Ahmad Sa'adat, a Palestinian 
prisoner of conscience, and all other Palestinian political 
prisoners, in the interests of human rights, self-determination and 
justice for the Palestinian people.
Thank you.
Monadel Herzallah

Please check out the web site below and take actions NOW .

<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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