Work for Freedom on the Second Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat!

Campaign to Free
Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/

March 14, 2008 is the second anniversary of the siege on
Jericho prison and the kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat and
his comrades by the Israeli occupation army. On this
date in 2006, the Israeli army laid siege for twelve
hours to the Palestinian prison at Jericho holding
six political prisoners. Israeli bulldozers and tanks
attacked the prison while the Israeli military issued
threats of assassination against the prisoners. This
military assault caused the death of two Palestinians,
the injury of twenty-three more, and the abduction of
Ahmad Sa'adat and five other political prisoners from
Jericho to Zionist prisons.

With his abduction, Sa'adat joined over 11,000
Palestinian political prisoners held in the depths of
the prisons of the occupation, including many Palestinian
national leaders and elected representatives.

For over four years, these men had been held in the
Palestinian Authority prison at Jericho, under U.S.
and British guards. Immediately prior to the Israeli
assault on the prison, these U.S. and British guards
abandoned their posts, clearing the way for the
military attack. The U.S. State Department blamed
Palestinians for the siege, stating that the
democratically-elected Palestinian Legislative
Council leadership had indicated its willingness to
release these illegally-held political prisoners.
Said Sa'adat in a letter to the Palestinian people
after his abduction, "The Quartet
[US, EU, Russia and UN] provide a cover for occupation.
What happened in Jericho Prison has made the
British and US governments an integral part of
the conflict and forever buried any illusions in
their neutrality."

Since his abduction - a blatant violation of Palestinian
sovereignty - Sa'adat's trial has been repeatedly
postponed and delayed. Israeli Attorney General
Menachem Mazuz admitted shortly following
the abduction that there was insufficient evidence
to indict Sa'adat in the assassination of extreme
racist Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001, an
act of retaliation for the August 2001 Israeli murder
of PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa. Instead,
Sa'adat was indicted on a wide array of political charges
in a hearing on March 28, 2006 at Ofer Military
Base in Ramallah.

Sa'adat has consistently and repeatedly refused to
recognize the legitimacy of the illegitimate court; his
lawyers have petitioned for the charges to be dropped,
as they are clearly politically motivated and the court
itself is illegitmate. His trial has been repeatedly
postponed, from May 2006, to September 2006,
to January 2007, and now through March 2008.
With each hearing, Sa'adat's courageous refusal to
recognize in any way the illegitimate court - refusing
to stand for the military judges, issuing statements
exposing this mockery of justice, and refusing to deal
with the military courts or interrogators - stand in clear
contrast to the system of occupation and oppression
represented by the military courts, exposing its
bankruptcy and illegitimacy.

Sa'adat's abduction made clear the full participation of the
U.S. and British governments and their full complicity
in the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian
people. Indeed, his case is a paradigmatic example of
the continuous war waged upon the Palestinian resistance,
using any and all mechanisms available on an international
level to repress the struggle of the Palestinian people for
liberation.

On this anniversary, it is vital that we act to free Ahmad
Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners, with
events, activities, statements and actions. Visit our website at http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/ to send a letter
to human rights organizations and get resources and materials
to promote this campaign in your area. Ahmad Sa'adat and
11,000 Palestinian political prisoners are facing the full
assault, once more, of the occupation - now is the time to
stand with the prisoners of freedom and work to free
Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/