MORE DEATH SENTENCES FOR PALESTINIAN COLLABORATORS

Ahmed Abu Ayash, 50, was given the death sentence by the Security Court in Nablus for collaborating with Israel in the assassination of a local Hamas leader, Salah Darawesh. An Israeli missile blew up Dawarzeh’s car on July 25.
Abu Ayash’s death sentence must be ratified by the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, as must the death sentences handed down to Samir Abu-Zeina, 21, Amjad Hafarza, 28, and Hussein Abu-Alayoun, 32 two days ago.
The three Palestinian men were found guilty of collaborating with Israel over the killing in December of a senior Fatah official.
A fourth man, Mohammed Abdul Rahman, 17, escaped the death penalty because he was a minor, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. A fifth, Husan Afif Khalil, was released because he was found to have been mentally unstable.
The five men were accused of treason and collaboration with Israeli intelligence services, and aiding in the assassination of Thabet Thabet in the West Bank City of Tulkarm. Thabet was gunned down outside his home on December 31, 2000.
At a court hearing in Nablus on Saturday, one of the five accused admitted sending a message on his mobile telephone to an Israeli intelligence officer telling him when Thabet left home on the day of his killing. The other four had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The verdicts were passed after a rushed 10-minute hearing, held after an Israeli missile attack on a building in the town in which eight Palestinians died, including two senior Hamas leaders and two children.
After the sentences were read out, spectators in the packed chamber shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) while outside the court gunmen fired their rifles into the air.
Nablus Governor Mahmud Aloul said sentencing the collaborators on the day when the attack took place would serve as a deterrent to possible collaborators.
In January, the Palestinian Authority executed two convicted collaborators, a move that provoked heavy international criticism.
The latest death sentences prompted a protest by Hands Off Cain in Rome, as Arafat visited Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday morning.