Tunisia to Sue Zionist Regime over Assassination of Abu-Jihad
News number: 9107117116 13:01 | 2012-11-05
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107117116

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tunis' Wafa Party plans to file a lawsuit against the Israeli
regime for the 1988 assassination of Deputy Head of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir, better known as Abu-Jihad.

Abu-Jihad was a founding member of Fatah and one of Yasser Arafat's top
aides. He was assassinated on April 16, 1988 at his home in Tunis.

The announcement, made by Tunis' Wafa Party, followed a report in Yedioth
Ahronoth's weekend magazine, which featured an interview given by Israeli
army Colonel Nahum Lev, in which he confessed to being part of the hit squad
that went after Abu-Jihad on Tunisian soil.

The interview was given shortly before Lev's death.

In the interview, Lev said he was part of the Sayeret Matkal team tasked
with the mission. Sayeret Matkal is the Israeli army's elite Special Forces
unit.

Wafa officials told Tunis' media that the suit will be filed based on the
facts mentioned in the report, as well as on the testimony of a former top
Tunisian official that argued over the years that the country's now-deposed
president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was involved in the hit.

A statement issued by the party said, "Based on an international
convention … such assassinations constitute a crime against humanity."

The legal action, however, stands to be presented only before a Tunis court
at this point. The party also included Israel's "accomplices" in the
lawsuit, but the statement did not elaborate further on their identity.

Tunisia's Wafa Party has a national platform based on the principles of the
revolution and holds 12 parliament seats.

Israel denied any involvement in the assassination for years, and the
interview was cleared for publication by the Military Censor only last week.

Lev, who was killed in a car crash in 2000, further confessed to being one
of the officers who fired the kill shot.

In the interview, Lev recounted that night: The unit, its members masked,
burst into the house and immediately took out Abu-Jihad's bodyguard.

One of the officers stormed the second floor with Lev on his heels. "He
fired at Abu-Jihad first …" Lev recounted.

"Then I fired, a long volley ... He was dead. Other officers confirmed it."