Radical Palestinian leader Abu Abbas is not covered by an immunity clause in a 1995 peace accord, a US official said, rejecting Palestinian arguments for his immediate release. The clause in question, contained an interim peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, deals only with the detention and prosecution of certain people in the jurisdiction of the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It does not apply to the legal status of persons detained in a third country," the official said of Abbas, the mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro who was capture by US forces in Baghdad on Monday.
The Palestinian leadership has complained that the arrest of Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, is illegal under the 1995 accord and called for his release. That accord says that members of the Palestine Liberation Organization cannot be arrested or tried for acts committed before September 1993. Abbas' Palestine Liberation Front is part of the PLO. But the agreement, signed in Washington on September 28, 1995, is a bilateral Israeli-Palestinian accord and does not set out any US specific commitment to immunity for acts against US citizens. Israel has already rejected the Palestinian argument and Italy is seeking Abbas' extradition. Abbas was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms in prison for his role in the hijacking.
Get the needle ready. |