GAZA CITY, 15 March 2004 — Four Palestinians who had been facing trial over the killing of three Americans in a bomb attack on a diplomatic convoy last October were released yesterday after prosecutors dropped their case, judicial sources said.
The four members of the Popular Resistance Committees were freed from prison in Gaza as “no evidence was offered against them”, the sources said.
The four, who were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Oct. 15, were formally charged over the killing early last month.
The three US security personnel had been working for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv when they were killed in a roadside blast as a US diplomatic convoy traveled close to the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
It was the first attack on a foreign target since the start of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000.
An anonymous telephone caller claiming to represent the Popular Resistance Committees told AFP at the time that it was responsible for the attack on the US convoy, but the group later issued a denial.
A spokesman for the group later confirmed the four men - Naim Abu Ful, 42, Bashir Abu Laban, 41, Mohammad Al-Dsuki Kamel Hamad, 22, and Ahmad Abdel Fatah Al-Safi, 23 - had been released but had been forced to pay an unspecified amount of bail pending a formal dropping of the whole investigation. “The court has decided to release the four after an inquiry,” he said.
A US Embassy source said that it had not been informed by the Palestinian authorities about the move. “We were not informed about this development and we do not have any details,” the source told AFP.
“Our interest remains the same - that the investigation be pursued vigorously and we want those responsible for this crime to be arrested, convicted and punished.” Officials in Washington had earlier said they put no stock in the investigation. “We don’t believe that the proceedings that are now under way represent the genuine resolution and application of justice that we seek,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last month.
The United States had also expressed unhappiness over the fact the four faced manslaughter rather than murder charges, with the indictment saying that the aim was to target Israeli tanks.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s national security adviser Jibril Al-Rajoub has accused Washington of “blackmailing” the Palestinians by halting its involvement in the Middle East peace process while awaiting the results of the investigation, a claim dismissed by the State Department as “ridiculous”.
The United States has offered a reward of up to $5 million for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the attack.
Meanwhile, the first Palestinian woman expelled by Israel from the West Bank to the fenced-in Gaza Strip ended her exile yesterday after a military court said she was no longer a security risk to Israel.
Intisar Ajouri, 34, was expelled with her brother Kifah, 38, in September 2002, after being accused by Israel of helping another brother carry out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed five people. She and her brother denied the allegations.
Israel has since expelled some 20 Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, hoping to deter attacks that have taken the lives of dozens of Israelis.
