EU wants to question Palestinian prisoners about PA funds
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who would be probed by the EU fraud investigation agency for funding the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. (Reuters)
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
The European Union wants to send investigators to Israel to interview Palestinians in Israeli prisons about the Palestinian Authority's use of European donations to fund terrorism.
The EU fraud investigation agency (OLAF) opened an investigation at the end of last year after a unanimous demand from the European Parliament for a probe of allegations that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and senior officials transferred EU funds to Fatah's military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Parliamentarians requested an open investigation, but a classified one by OLAF was ultimately decided upon. OLAF officials visited Israel at the beginning of 2004 and reviewed documents and testimony presented by the IDF and Shin Bet security service.
Some of those documents were seized during the Israel Defense Forces raid on Arafat's Muqata compound in Ramallah during Operation Defensive Shield in April 2002. After examining the material, investigators determined it was authentic.
Now they want to substantiate the allegations from the testimony of Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members who are in custody in Israel. A request to interview them was recently submitted to the National Security Council's anti-terror headquarters.
Israel has an interest in eliciting an EU confirmation of its own suspicions so it will most likely allow the interviews.
In the past, prisoners from Fatah have told reporters they got financial support from the PA and that in certain periods they even got instructions from senior PA security service officials on carrying out attacks.
In the past decade, the EU has transfered about 1.5 billion euros to the PA. European support for the PA is currently around 10 million euros a month. A report by the International Monetary Fund last year said senior Palestinian officials had funneled close to $900 million in PA funds from donor countries and from profits from PA monopolies in the territories into overseas bank accounts.
One of the main beneficiaries is Arafat's wife, Suha Arafat, who lives in Paris - an issue that has come under investigation recently in France.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who would be probed by the EU fraud investigation agency for funding the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. (Reuters)
