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palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The brutal death of a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at the Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, serves as a grim reminder of the interminable cycle of the PA’s collaboration with, and dependence upon, Israel.

Omar Nayef Zayed, originally from the West Bank city of Jenin, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for the murder of an Israeli student in occupied East Jerusalem. Just four years into his sentence, he managed to flee after being transferred to a hospital following a 40-day hunger strike. In 1994, he settled in Bulgaria, where he was granted residency in 2012. The married father of three ran a vegetable shop in the country’s capital.

On Dec. 15, 2015, Israeli judicial authorities sought Zayed’s extradition through correspondence directed to the Bulgarian justice ministry, in which Zayed was deemed “a fugitive from justice.” Zayed’s home was raided two days later, prompting him to seek refuge at the PA’s embassy.

The details surrounding his death remain unclear. However, several incidents and statements shed light upon the high probability of collaboration and complicity between the PA, Israel and Bulgarian authorities.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/samidouns-charlotte-kates-discusses-pas-complicity-death-omar-nayef-zayed/215132/

Family's search for truth over death of Palestinian 'hero' in Bulgaria

Bulgarian officials said Omar Zayed most likely fell three storeys to his death, but his family is convinced Israeli intelligence agents killed the 51-year-old.

On 26 February, more than 20 years after Zayed had begun a new life in Europe, he was found dead at the Palestinian Embassy in Sofia where he’d sought refuge after Bulgarian authorities notified him of Israel’s intentions to seek his extradition.

Zayed escaped from an Israeli prison hospital in 1992, after serving seven years of a life sentence for the slaying of a Jewish Israeli citizen. He denied committing the crime, and said that he was tortured by Israeli authorities into confessing to it.

He had spent more than two months in hiding at the embassy before he was found dead. During that time, Zayed was in constant contact with his family both in Bulgaria and in the occupied Palestinian territory.

His brother, Ahmad Zayed, who lives in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, said that in the weeks before his death Omar expressed fear that the embassy wasn’t the safe refuge he expected.

Omar’s wife, Rania Zayed, who is still in Bulgaria with the couple’s three children, told Middle East Eye that she’d visited her husband at the embassy frequently.

“There was no security,” Rania said. “That started to really concern us. He was there for protection, yet there were no guards, no security cameras, nothing.”
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/family-palestinian-found-dead-bulgaria-speaks-about-his-life-death-1280256857