PFLP calls for Dec. 25 solidarity action for imprisoned leader Ahmad Sa'adat

The Campaign to support imprisoned Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa'adat announced on December 17, 2008, that sentencing of Comrade Sa'adat in the illegitimate military courts of the occupation is expected to occur on December 25, 2008, calling for immediate action on Palestinian, Arab and international levels to demand his freedom and the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners.

Rallies in support of Comrade Sa'adat are planned for December 25 in Ramallah and in Gaza, as well as internationally. The statement received from the campaign is below:

"The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat is urgently calling on all supporters of the Palestinian people, and all supporters of justice and freedom, to organize and act in solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned Palestinian national leader on or before December 25, 2008. Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, has been imprisoned in Israeli jails alongside 11,000 of his Palestinian brothers and sisters since March 14, 2006, when he was abducted by Israeli occupation forces, following the siege on Jericho Prison on March 13, 2006, in which Sa'adat and five other Palestinian political prisoners were abducted by the Israeli occupation military.

On December 25, 2008, Ahmad Sa'adat is expected to be sentenced in what is being called the final court session in his case.

During his two and one-half years in Israeli jails, Sa'adat has steadfastly refused to grant any legitimacy to the military courts of the occupation. His statements to the court have repeatedly underlined his approach to these military tribunals - rejecting their authority entirely as illegitimate and invalid, the attempts of the occupying authority to utilize a court system to continue its war against the Palestinian people.

His military trial has been repeatedly postponed and has stretched over dozens of hearings since March 2006. With sentencing looming, it is urgent that the case of Ahmad Sa'adat - and his fellow Palestinian prisoners - receive the utmost attention and solidarity of people around the world at this urgent time.

It is particularly important to note that Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades were kidnapped in an assault on the Palestinian Authority prison at Jericho, where he was held in a PA prison, at the behest of the U.S., Britain and Israel, and guarded over by U.S. and British guards. Sa'adat's case directly implicates the leading role of the United States and Britain in the ongoing assault against the Palestinian people.

Just as the governments of the U.S. and Britain facilitated his imprisonment, the people of the world's support is needed to stand for his freedom. In addition, Sa'adat's case speaks directly to the dangerous and inexcusable practice of "security cooperation" with the Israeli occupation on the part of the Palestinian Authority, under which he was held for four years without charge by the PA, the U.S. and Britain under the demands and dictates of Israel."
http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=node/1333