Last update - 00:00 22/10/2007
Suspects in plot to assassinate PM Olmert back in custody
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent
The guards at the jail under the control of the General Intelligence Service in Jericho appeared tense and suspicious Sunday. In the small complex, surrounded by walls, one of the jailers turned the key to a cell in a dark corridor. "I am Mohammed Aruf," the prisoner in the cell said. This is a man the Shin Bet security service claims that the Palestinian Authority has released from jail. He is suspected of being part of a group that planned an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during his visit to Jericho this summer.
At another prison in Jericho, a second suspect in the case is being held. Yet the Shin Bet claims that he, too, has been released.
Two hours earlier, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told the cabinet that on September 26, the Palestinian Authority had released the three suspects it arrested, at Israel's request, for their role in the case.
According to Diskin, the group planned to attack the prime minister's motorcade, and comprised men from Fatah and the PA security services. The Shin Bet chief explained that two of the members of the group were arrested by the Israeli security services and three others were arrested by the PA, but then released after having admitted under questioning that they planned an attack.
Nonetheless, Mohammed Aruf is under arrest. He is held in an old, small cell, on a thin mattress on the floor. Aruf looked a bit surprised by all the fuss over him. The security forces at the prison did not allow Haaretz to photograph the prisoner or talk to him beyond the limited exchange.
It seems that Diskin forgot to tell the government that last Friday, the PA rearrested two of the three suspects again in compliance with an Israeli request. Moreover, the Shin Bet recently arrested the third suspect, bringing to three the number of suspects held by Israel.
After Diskin's announcement, ministers and MKs rushed to declare that the PA is reverting to its old patterns of behavior a "revolving door" for suspects, meaning they are released immediately after their arrest.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, for example, said that this is "a classic example of the PA's policy of yaani [make-believe]. This is not a 'revolving door' policy. For there to be a door, one needs a prison and a structure and the Palestinians have nothing."
On the other hand, Olmert told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Paris that "what is troubling is the inappropriate way that the suspects were handled. We cannot let this go by, but I also do not intend to stop the efforts at dialogue and the negotiations with the Palestinians."
In Jericho, General Intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi seemed to be the only person in the PA who was aware of all the details of the story. He told reporters that the PA was holding two suspects in custody.
The alleged proof of the PA's "revolving door" policy arrived at about 1:30 P.M., from Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself. Prior to a meeting in Jerusalem with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, Fayyad noted that he is not responsible for the security services. But he also said that three of the suspects arrested by the PA had been released after being held for questioning for three months.
In Jericho, however, the situation appeared a bit different. The extensive media attention worked, and the Haaretz crew was allowed to visit the other prisoner as well, at a makeshift prison run by Military Intelligence. Outside a locked room on the third floor stood a guard. In the room, Mohammed Hamdan, 24, was praying. After finishing his prayers, he said that he is a resident of Aqabat Jabar, a refugee camp south of Jericho.
According to his identity card, he is the second suspect that the Shin Bet claimed had been released.
Fayyad told Itzik that the two suspects had been arrested again but he did so only after having told the press that they had been freed.
These are the facts that Haaretz has discovered: On June 25 or 26, about six weeks prior to Olmert's scheduled visit to Jericho, the Shin Bet informed the PA that an attack was being planned, but the nature of the attack was still uncertain. On June 28, the three men were arrested. Olmert visited Jericho on August 6, while they were still in custody.
The three told PA interrogators that they had "discussed the idea [of targeting Olmert] in general terms."
But a senior Palestinian official said "they lacked the means, they had no plan and the whole matter was just conversations among excited young men. It seems that someone [in Israel] heard their telephone conversations and began to suspect that there was an entire plot to target Olmert."
The three were released on September 25, but there are conflicting versions of why they were freed. Some say that the release was a mistake, and they were rearrested after it was discovered. Other sources said that the release occurred because there had been no real plan for an attack.
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