Hamas claims that charges against Abu Sisi are false and intended to justify kidnapping

The Islamic Resistance Movement has again denied any relationship with Dirar Abu Sisi, the director of Gaza’s power station who was abducted by Israel’s Mossad in Ukraine before being taken to Israel two months ago to face charges of developing and upgrading missiles and rockets for Hamas, and establishing a military academy for the movement. Hamas says that the charges lodged against the Palestinian engineer are false.

In a press release, Hamas’ spokesman Fawzy Barhoom accused the Ukranian government of “collaborating with Israel in kidnapping Abu Sisi, torturing him and lodging charges against him”. According to Barhoom, this is “organized crime” and amounts to “state terrorism”. Israel is seeking to indict Abu Sisi in order to justify and cover-up its own crimes, he said. Hamas demanded that the Ukrainian authorities and human rights organisations “work toward the release of Abu Sisi and end the suffering of his wife, children, and family”.

Abu Sisi, a father of six, arrived in Ukraine with his Ukrainian wife and one of his children on January 27 to visit his wife’s family, obtain a residence permit, which he obtained, and register their youngest child with the Ukrainian authorities. The engineer disappeared on February 19 in Ukraine; it was only recently that the Israeli authorities acknowledged that they had abducted him.