For Immediate Release February 12, 2003

ISRAELI LAWYER CALLS ON ATTORNEY GENERAL TO ISSUE ARREST WARRANT FOR
TERRORIST ABU ABBAS

Israeli activist lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is urging Attorney General
Elyakim Rubinstein to issue a warrant for the arrest of Iraqi based
terrorist mastermind Mahmoud Abu Abbas. Abbas, a member of the PLO
Executive Committee, heads the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) which is
responsible for the murders and wounding of numerous Israelis and Americans
in terror attacks he has perpetrated since the mid-1970s. The anticipated
American incursion into Iraq will allow United States military forces to
capture the fugitive Palestinian leader.

Attorney Darshan-Leitner, who heads the Israel Law Center, claims that
Israel has clear proof of Abbas' responsibility for the recent murder of
Jerusalem teenager, Yuri Gustchin and a Haifa terrorist bombing that
seriously wounded five civilians. Confessions from PLF members captured in
November 2001 implicate Abbas in numerous other terrorist attacks. However,
the Attorney General's office has still not undertaken any efforts to seek
Abbas' arrest.

In 1979, Abbas' terrorist group carried out an attack on an Israeli
apartment building in Naharia that killed a family of four, including two
young children. In 1985, Abbas perpetrated the infamous hijacking of the
Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro. In the course of the attack, in which
the PLF took four hundred of the ship's passengers hostage, the terrorists
murdered an elderly wheel chair bound American, Leon Klinghoeffer.
Afterwards, Abbas was permitted by Italian authorities to escape to Bagdad.
In May 1998, the Netanyahu government permitted Abbas to relocate his
headquarters from Iraq to Gaza and allowed him to reside in the Palestinian
Authority permanently. Abbas had vowed that he now supported the "peace
process," and no longer was engaged in terrorism. A petition to the High
Court of Justice by attorney Darshan-Leitner at the time was rejected by the
Court, which found that Abbas had repented of his murderous methods.

In October 2000, Abbas abruptly reappeared in Iraq announcing that he had
trained a terrorist cell in Gaza which would soon start to carry out car
bomb attacks in Israel. In an October 17, 2000 interview with Iraq's
al-Rafideen magazine the Palestinian mastermind boasted of the terrorist
network he had established in the Palestinian Authority during his stay.
Abbas stated that inside the PLF "a decision was taken to carry out suicide
operations" against Israel "for the sake of liberating Palestine." According
to the magazine the PLF was also training Palestinian volunteers inside of
Iraq to engage in the anti-Israel attacks.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli security forces captured fifteen members of
Abbas' group who had been trained in Iraq. The terrorists were apprehended
only after they killed Jerusalem teenager Yuri Gustchin on July 24, 2001 and
left his body in Ramallah. In addition, they confessed to carrying out
several shootings and bombings, including one in Haifa which injured five
civilians.

Although the impending American war against Iraq might provide the United
States the opportunity to capture the Palestinian fugitive leader, the
Israeli Attorney General has yet to issue an arrest warrant for the
terrorist nor make a formal request to the Americans to locate him.
According to Darshan-Leitner, Israeli law enforcement agencies seem intent
on missing another opportunity to apprehend Abbas and are prepared to allow
him to escape again.

"The Attorney General's office has repeatedly refused to arrest Abbas and to
prosecute him for his murder of Jews around the world," stated
Darshan-Leitner, "Each time the PLF leader has been given another chance by
the government to prove himself, he succeeds in killing more Israeli
civilians. Its time for the Attorney General to finally issue an arrest
warrant against Abbas for the murder of Yuri Gustchin and make his capture a
national priority."

FOR MORE INFORMATION: 972-8-973-3336, or nitsana@israelawcenter.org