PLO asks Bulgaria not to hand over ex-prisoner to Israel

Issa Qaraqei, the head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Committee, an affiliate of the PLO, has called on Bulgaria not to hand over Palestinian-Bulgarian national Omar Nayif to Israel, Anadolu reported on yesterday.

Speaking to Anadolu, Qaraqei described the Israeli demand to Bulgaria to hand over Nayif as “piracy” and “intervention in internal Bulgarian affairs”.

Qaraqei added: “Since the first day [when the Israeli authorities have issued the handover warrant], we have been working to undermine Nayif’s handover.”

He continued: “We will hold a meeting today in the head office of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry to see what forms of legal and political action we are able to take.”

On 15 December, the Israeli Public Prosecution sent a letter to the Bulgarian Justice Ministry, asking it to handover Nayif and calling him “a fugitive from justice”.

Nayif was arrested in 1986 and was sentenced to death. Four years later, he went on a hunger strike and was moved into a hospital in Bethlehem. He fled and travelled to several countries before settling in Bulgaria.