Palestinian Military Court Sends Hamas Leader to Prison
A Palestinian military court Sunday sentenced the top political leader of the militant group Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank to two years in prison for writing “seditious” newspaper articles, officials said.
Saiyed abu Musameh was convicted and sentenced a day after being arrested outside his office at the Hamas-owned newspaper, Al Watan.
He is the highest-ranking Hamas official to be tried by the court set up by the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian officials said Abu Musameh had been warned several times about what they viewed as incitement. In one article, they said, he wrote that the Palestinian Authority was identical to Israeli occupation forces.
The court ordered Al Watan, a weekly with a circulation of 7,000, to be closed for three months.
Abu Musameh took over as Hamas’ political leader after Israel imprisoned Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin in 1989. Abu Musameh was then jailed by Israeli authorities but was freed along with thousands of other Palestinian inmates after Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a framework for peace in September, 1993.
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