MIDDLE EAST: A Palestinian court yesterday ordered the release of a militant leader, incensing Israel and casting a shadow over a visit by CIA director, Mr George Tenet.
Mr Tenet, on a mission to push for a restructuring of Palestinian security services, which Israel says turned a blind eye to suicide bombings, met the Israeli prime minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, after landing in Tel Aviv.
Mr Sharon told reporters that Israel had taken every measure to prevent the freeing of Mr Ahmed Sa'adat, whom he accused of orchestrating the assassination of Israeli cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi.
The CIA director is due to see the Palestinian president, Mr Yasser Arafat, who has appealed for international intervention to stop daily Israeli raids in the West Bank.
But the standoff over Mr Sa'adat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), could hijack the agenda of Mr Tenet's visit, which President George W. Bush said would be to help build a united Palestinian force "that will fight terror".
Mr Sa'adat is one of six Palestinians being held in a West Bank prison under British and US supervision as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended Israel's five-week siege of Mr Arafat's Ramallah offices last month.
The PFLP said it was behind the assassination in October 2001 to avenge Israel's killing of Sa'adat's predecessor.
The three-judge Palestinian High Court said there was no evidence linking Mr Sa'adat, who has not been put on trial, to the assassination of Zeevi.
Palestinian officials sent conflicting signals on whether Mr Arafat needed to ratify the ruling. It was not clear whether Mr Sa'adat would be released or how the British and US personnel, posted as observers at the jail, would react if he were freed.
But Israel responded angrily. "We have taken all the necessary steps so that it will not be possible to release a person who was involved in murder, ordered murder and whose organisation carries out murders to this day," Mr Sharon told reporters.
Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said the release of Mr Sa'adat would breach the Palestinians' deal with Israel, the United States and Britain and warned that the Jewish state would then feel free "to act according to its security interest".
Palestinian cabinet minister Mr Saeb Erekat said Mr Arafat, who recently signed an order declaring the judiciary independent and who has promised to overhaul his own administration, should ratify the high court's ruling.
But Mr Arafat's senior aide, Mr Nabil Abu Rdainah, said the court's ruling was binding and did not require the president's endorsement.
Mr Sa'adat said by telephone from the Jericho jail: "I hope the Palestinian Authority would respect the court's ruling."
Adding to pressure on Mr Arafat, leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip said the two militant groups, which oppose interim peace accords with Israel, had rejected his offer of seats in a reformed cabinet. - (Reuters)