FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 25, 2002

FORMER PRISONER OF ZION, ISRAELI ATTORNEY URGE US ENVOY BURNS TO INTERCEDE
ON BEHALF OF PA DEATH ROW PRISONERS

Ida Nudel & Attorney Darshan-Leitner Plea to Stop Imminent Executions

Former Prisoner of Zion, Ida Nudel and activist attorney Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner have sent a letter to United States Under-Secretary of State
William Burns urging him to intervene with the leaders of the Palestinian
Authority (PA) to save the lives of three Arabs who are facing firing
squads. The prisoners, Walid Hamdiya, 39, Khaled al-Kidreh, 31 and Akram
al-Zatma, 22, have all been found guilty and sentenced to death by the
Palestinian Security Court in Gaza of "collaborating" with Israel. The
convictions followed swift trials over the past seven days, before military
tribunals, in which the prisoners were not provided time to prepare their
defenses.

On Thursday, October 17th, Walid Hamdiya was abruptly taken from the cell
in which he had been held since 1995 and brought to Palestinian Intelligence
headquarters where he was tried. On Saturday, October 19th another
Palestinian prisoner held since 1997, Khaled al-Kidreh, was similarly
given a rapid trial and sentenced to death. Yesterday, Thursday, October
24th, a third prisoner, Akram al-Zatma was brought to trial and also given
the death penalty. All three have been ordered to be executed by firing
squad. There are no appeals from the security "trials" and only PA leader
Yasser Arafat, has the authority to ratify or commute the court's sentences.

It is alleged that the trials and death sentences are directly tied to the
rising tensions between Arafat's Fatah movement and the Hamas organization
based in Gaza. Several Palestinians have been killed in recent warfare
between the two
terrorist groups. Fatah leaders are looking for means of appeasing the
Islamic organization's members.

In their letter to US Envoy Burns Nudel and Darshan-Leitner wrote, "The very
serious charges that have been leveled against the three and the atmosphere
of incitement and hysteria that prevails today in the Palestinian
Authority, insures that Arafat will approve the death penalties. We allege
that the sham trials and death sentences and inevitable executions are
nothing more than "peace gestures" by Arafat's Fatah organization to the
terrorist Hamas movement. "
The pair fear that the Palestinian security forces will order further
executions of prisoners held on suspicions of assisting Israel in the
coming days. They believe that only the intervention of Under-Secretary
Burns could influence Arafat to stop the executions.
"If the Palestinians understand that the outside world, including the United
States State Department, is monitoring the manner in which they adjudicate
these capital crime proceedings and the death penalties, " states the
letter, "they will be much more cautious in providing the prisoners their
basic civil rights that every human being deserves. This is not merely an
`internal Palestinian matter,' as the `trials' of these long-held prisoners
did not conform to any of the norms of international law."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: (972) 8-973-3336 or email: nitsanad@zahav.net.il