[Al Ahram] Paleostinian economy minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said on Tuesday he will 'suspend' his official work to fight charges of fraud levelled against him last week.Fraud? In the Paleostinian government? That's never happened before, has it?
The attorney general has charged Abu Libdeh on four counts of fraud and financial wrongdoing, according to a copy of a charge sheet issued November 21 and seen on Tuesday by AFP. The charges allegedly relate to Abu Libdeh's time as the head of the Paleostinian Capital Market Authority, before he joined the government headed by prime minister Salam Fayyad.
...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either...
Abu Libdeh has denied any wrongdoing
"No, no! Certainly not!"
and said in a statement that he planned to "suspend" his official work to fight the allegations. "Even though the case we're talking about has nothing to do with my duties as the minister of economy... I cannot continue to perform my functions efficiently while facing these vicious attacks, defamation and the spreading of vicious rumours against me and my family," he said.
"Based on this, I announce that I am suspending the performance of my functions and duties in order to free myself to defend myself against this fabricated case." Paleostinian law requires any minister charged by the attorney general to cease official functions until the case is resolved.
It was unclear when the charges against Abu Libdeh -- which include corruption, fraud and manipulating the money market -- might be heard.
They come as Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
tries to agree the formation of a new government of independents with rival movement Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, to guide the Paleostinians to elections by May 2012.