Wanted Palestinian leader surrenders
The top Palestinian Fatah guerrilla leader in Lebanon, facing a death sentence passed in absentia, today surrendered to a military court, which quickly retried him and found him innocent.
Maj Gen. Sultan Abul-Einein, leader of the mainstream Fatah group of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Lebanon, was sentenced to death by a Lebanese Military Tribunal in 1999 after he failed to appear in court to answer charges of leading an armed group and attacking people and public property.
He has said the charges were politically motivated.
At the time, Abul-Einein was a follower of the late Palestinian leader and Syrian foe Yasser Arafat and the Lebanese government was controlled by Syria.
“He surrendered in the morning. The (in absentia) verdict was thrown out. A trial was held and the verdict is innocent,” Col Khaled Aref, a senior Fatah official, said outside the Military Tribunal.
Aref said he attended the 30-minute court hearing during which the verdict was issued.
Court officials confirmed the innocent verdict.
Over the years, the government never bothered to enforce the sentence against Abul-Einein, who was holed up in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh in southern Lebanon.
The government feared that attempting to apprehend him could trigger clashes between the Lebanese army and Palestinian guerrillas.
His surrender and quick retrial appeared to be a formality, since technically he has to surrender in order to be granted a retrial, but resolving his case is certain to reduce tensions between authorities and Palestinians in Lebanon, who number about 350,000 and include several thousands who are armed.
