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Abbas denies investigations into aide’s alleged corruption

November 25, 2017 at 1:59 pm

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a central committee meeting of Fatah Movement in Ramallah, West Bank on 13 September 2017 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Authority President has denied that investigations are taking place into corruption allegations made against his close aide Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Safa news agency reported on Friday.

Al-Habbash is the Chief of the PA’s Judges and Mahmoud Abbas’s adviser on religious and international Islamic relations. He is accused of graft and using his positions to further his own objectives.

Several Palestinian sources and mass media also revealed Habbash’s wealth over the past few days and how he used his position to recruit close relatives and give them senior positions within the authority. The reports gave details of how he has bought villas, apartments and other real estate across the occupied West Bank, and allege that he has “faked” ownership documents.

A statement from Abbas’s office accused all such reports of being “fabricated” and “baseless”, and called for journalists and the media to be “precise” and “cautious” when they deal with this issue. They should, insisted officials, depend on well-known PA sources when they report such matters.

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