Friends since schooldays: Jaweed al-Ghussein with Yassir Arafat. They fell out during the Gulf War

MONDAY APRIL 23 2001

Arafat's 'corrupt' friend held in Gaza

BY RICHARD BEESTON, DIPLOMATIC EDITOR

A PROMINENT Palestinian businessman, who for years ran the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s finances, has been arrested in the Gulf and extradited to Gaza, where he faces possible execution after being accused of corruption by Yassir Arafat, his childhood friend and former ally.

In a move that threatens seriously to divide the Palestinian community and reopen allegations of corruption among its leaders, Jaweed al-Ghussein, 70, was arrested at his home in Abu Dhabi in the early hours of Friday. Last night he rang his wife to say that he was being secretly moved to Gaza, where he was in the custody of the Palestinian Authority.

His family said that it feared he could be put before “a kangaroo court” and may face the death penalty. Recently a number of Palestinians, allegedly caught collaborating with Israel, have been arrested, tried and shot by firing squad under the orders of Mr Arafat, the Palestinian leader.

Last night a campaign was launched by influential friends of Mr al-Ghussein to secure his release. King Abdullah of Jordan has intervened and appeals are expected from the Kuwaitis and other Arab governments. Britain and the United States are also expected to receive calls for help and may be asked to provide political asylum.

“We fear the worst,” Mona Bauwens, Mr al-Ghussein’s daughter, said in London. “My father is a diabetic and has a heart problem. He has been arrested without charge and he is being used as a scapegoat by the Palestinian Authority. We are appealing to anyone who can help to intervene and secure his release before it is too late.”

Mr al-Ghussein, who comes from a prominent Palestinian family, was a schoolfriend of Mr Arafat’s and has been closely linked to the PLO for most of his life. For 12 years he served as a member of the PLO’s executive committee and as chairman of the Palestine National Fund. In effect he controlled much of the finance for the PLO’s government-in-exile, which collected taxes from the Palestinian diaspora and donations from sympathetic governments and funded everything from Palestinian embassies to scholarships for students to study abroad.

He fell out with Mr Arafat during the Gulf War when he was one of the few Palestinian leaders to condemn Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. He also revealed the existence of hidden accounts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, to which, allegedly, only Mr Arafat had access.

Although he retired from politics to run a construction business in the United Arab Emirates, he has been embroiled in a long financial dispute with the Palestinian Authority, which stripped him of his citizenship and pressured the UAE authorities to extradite him to Gaza to stand trial for corruption.

Tawfiq, Mr al-Ghussein’s son, said yesterday that his father had been cleared already by a court in the UAE. He said that this action against his father was an attempt by Mr Arafat to deflect criticism of corrupt practices within the Palestinian Authority and to intimidate its critics. “They have resorted to tactics to distract from the important issues instead of concentrating on remedying the agony that the Palestinians are suffering due to their ineffective and corrupt government,” he said in a statement from Abu Dhabi.

Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2001