PA calls for extradition of five suspects connected to Dahlan

The Palestinian Anti-Corruption Committee has requested the government’s embassies in five countries ask local authorities to hand over five suspects “accused of corruption” and believed to have connections with dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan.

In a letter to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah, the committee said the decision allows the corruption crimes court in Ramallah to continue its deliberations in the case against Dahlan on charges of “embezzling nearly $20 million of public money” which requires extraditing suspects who have connections to Dahlan to be brought before court for further investigation.

A Palestinian official told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the decision comes after the Palestinian Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld an earlier decision to lift Dahlan’s parliamentary immunity.

The source explained that the Anti-Corruption Commission asked the Palestinian embassy in London to contact the British authorities to extradite the former economic adviser to the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Rashid and the Palestinian embassy in Cairo to contact the Egyptian authorities, to extradite former Preventive Security chief in the Gaza Strip, Rashid Abu Shbak.

According to the same source, the Anti-Corruption Commission requested the extradition of Palestine’s former Ambassador in Montenegro Adham Mudalaleh and a Palestinian who lives in the UAE, Basil Jaber, as well as an “unnamed” Libyan citizen.

The source said the five men are suspected of abusing Palestinian Authority money.

The source pointed out that Dahlan himself is being tried in absentia and if he was found guilty, an arrest warrant will be issued against him.

Dahlan refuses to appear before a Palestinian court which he describes as “politicised and a tool used by President Mahmoud Abbas to settle personal accounts with him”.