A 24-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab man was sentenced to death on Wednesday for helping Israel fight terrorism, PA media outlets reported. The sentence will not be carried out until it is approved by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
| Don't expect Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to complain very loudly about the death penalty in this case ... |
Prosecutors said the young man, whose name has been kept a secret, was recruited by Israeli agents while working at an Israeli gas station in 1999. He began watching local men who attacked Israeli vehicles with rocks in the Hevron region and turning their names over to Israeli intelligence agents.
The man was then hired by the PA police and began working as a naval officer. He allegedly informed on two terrorists associated with Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades to Israeli forces. The two were assassinated by IDF soldiers in 2002.
PA police say the man confessed to the allegations. Many PA prisoners who have "confessed" have later reported that their confessions were given under duress, and several human rights groups have expressed concern over the frequent use of torture by PA officers to obtain confessions.
| Have those 'human rights groups' been anywhere as loud in their condemnation of torture by the PA as they have been about alleged torture at Gitmo? |
The man was sentenced to death under a 1979 law that makes cooperation with Israeli troops punishable by death. The law is still enforced despite the PA's commitment under multiple peace accords to fight terrorism, including that carried out by the Al-Aksa brigades. |