Palestinian court frees alleged terrorist

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Palestinian high court on Tuesday ordered the release of the alleged mastermind of a clandestine shipment of Iranian weapons to the Palestinian Authority, but it appeared unlikely he would be set free soon.\nThe defendant, Fuad Shobaki, is being held under British supervision at a Palestinian jail in Jericho, the only West Bank town not under Israeli occupation.\nIsrael, which initially demanded that Shobaki be extradited and only reluctantly agreed to have him jailed in Jericho, said his release would violate international agreements and give Israel the right to try to capture him.\nViolence continued in the Gaza Strip, where undercover Israeli soldiers shot dead a Hamas activist early Tuesday. The army said he threw bricks at the soldiers from a roof and fled when they tried to arrest him.\nU.N. officials charged Israeli soldiers also fired late Monday on a U.N. bus carrying Palestinian students to a technical university in Gaza, injuring a 20-year-old. The army said it was unaware of any vehicle being hit in the area.\nAides to Yasser Arafat said it was unlikely the Palestinian leader would go along with the court order to release Shobaki because of Israeli and international pressure.\n"We respect the decision of the high court but the circumstances are difficult because of Israeli blackmail," said Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat. "If we remove Shobaki from where he is right now, he may be abducted or killed by the Israelis."\nIsrael says Shobaki, the finance director of the Palestinian security services, bankrolled a foiled shipment of 50 tons of weapons from Iran. The weapons, transported aboard a ship, the Karine A, were seized by Israeli naval commandos in the Red Sea in January.\nThe Palestinian high court ruled Tuesday that there was no evidence against Shobaki. His lawyer, Hussein Shiyoukhi, said the Israeli army had searched Shobaki's home and office and did not find any documents to back up the accusations.\nShiyoukhi said he has asked Arafat to keep Shobaki in the Palestinian leader's compound in Jericho "until we can settle the whole issue with other parties," referring to Israel, the United States and Britain.\nRaanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the release of Shobaki would violate agreements with Israel.\n"The revolving door policy is still effect," he said. "They arrest in one door and let out in the other door. ... If they do not comply with their part of the deal to keep in custody we go back to square one and we can pursue them."\nShobaki was sent to the Jericho prison in May, along with five other Palestinians, as part of a deal that ended Israel's 34-day siege of Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Israel had initially insisted that the men be handed over.\nFour of those sent to Jericho prison were convicted of assassinating right-wing Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi in a one-day trial in Arafat's compound in April. The four -- all activists in a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years. Human rights activists criticized the trial as unfair.\nIn June, a Palestinian court in the Gaza Strip ordered the release of PFPL leader Ahmed Saadat, who is also being held in Jericho. The decision infuriated Israel and was later overruled by the Palestinian Cabinet.\nThe U.N. Reliefs and Works Agency, or UNRWA, said Tuesday that a 21-year-old Palestinian killed Dec. 2, Maher Saqallah, had been a janitor at a U.N.-run school - making him the fourth U.N. staff member killed in the past three weeks.\nPalestinians said then that Saqallah had been a bystander during a gunbattle between militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia and Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The Israeli military said soldiers fired at Palestinians throwing firebombs.\nTensions between UNRWA and Israel have been high since soldiers shot and killed one of the agency's British employees, Iain Hook, on Nov. 22 during a gun battle with armed Palestinians in Jenin. The army said its soldiers mistook a cellphone Hook was using for a weapon and that gunmen had entered the walled UN compound. UNRWA denies that gunmen had entered the compound.\nTwo other U.N. school employees were among 10 Palestinians killed in Gaza on Friday.