PA slams Hamas executions of alleged collaborators
Published today (updated) 23/08/2014 15:55
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=722656

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority on Saturday blasted Hamas
officials for executing more than 20 alleged collaborators with Israel on
Thursday and Friday, stressing the lack of judicial oversight and
transparency.

Secretary-General of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office al-Tayyib
Abd al-Rahim said that the executions had been conducted illegally outside
of the Palestinian court system and could thus not be considered to have
gone through fair process.

"The executions were done in cold blood and according to Hamas law, which
is: who is not with Hamas is against it," he added.

Abd al-Rahim called the killings "random executions of those who Hamas
called collaborators," adding that some of those killed had been detained
for more than three years before their recent executions.

Abd al-Rahim also accused Hamas of having punished political dissidents
within Gaza previously during the recent Israeli assault, claiming that the
group "shot at the feet" of "many of those" who called upon the movement to
accept a ceasefire and had placed "many" others under house arrest.

"It is enough for our great people in the Gaza Strip that they suffer from
the Israeli siege and offensive," Abd al-Rahim added.

He also said that the executions are "rejected and condemned" by the
Palestinian people, adding that they were reminiscent of the summary
executions carried out by Wahhabi militant groups in other parts of the
Middle East.

Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death. All
death sentences, however, require President Mahmoud Abbas' approval before
being carried out, and Abbas issued a moratorium on death sentences in 2005.

Until the formation of a unity government in April, however, Hamas carried
out executions under its own authority because it did not recognize Abbas as
president, arguing that his term expired in 2009.

Abd al-Rahim called Hamas' actions "provocative" in light of the national
reconciliation agreement, saying that they show that Hamas acts as an
"authority" unto itself and "is not sincere in reconciliation and its
commitments towards the unity government" of the Palestinian Authority.

He added that Hamas had suggested that "these executions were done
legitimately and claimed that all Gaza factions were aware of them
executions when they were not."

Abd al-Rahim called upon legal and human rights institutions in Palestine
"and especially in the Gaza Strip" to condemn these acts that "offend" the
Palestinian people and to oppose them in order to "preserve social and
national unity."