Hamas executes Palestinian for Israeli collaboration

Gaza's Islamist-run government executed a man convicted of collaborating with Israel on Wednesday, the Hamas interior ministry said, openly defying the Palestinian president just hours ahead of a reconciliation move.

The man was executed by firing squad after being sentenced to death last month for helping "the Israeli occupation", the ministry said, referring to him only by his initials A.S..

The execution came on the same day that the leaders of Hamas ratified a deal with western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end a Palestinian schism that has left Hamas in sole control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel withdrew from the enclave in 2005 but maintains a blockade against Hamas, which refuses to recognise the Jewish state or renounce violence.

Under Palestinian law, executions should be carried out only with presidential approval, but Hamas ignored this.

It was not clear if the execution had been rushed through ahead of the unity ceremony in Egypt or whether Hamas would in future seek Abbas's approval to apply the death penalty.

Hamas executed 5 Palestinians last year, including 2 men also convicted of collaborating with Israel.

A Palestinian human rights group named the executed man as Abdel-Karim Shrair, 37, and said he had been a member of the local police force when it was dominated by Abbas's Fatah group.

"The Independent Commission for Human Rights condemns the execution by the Palestinian government in Gaza of the death penalty against a citizen this morning," the group said.

"It reaffirms that ratification of death penalties is an exclusive right of the president of the Palestinian Authority."

Hamas defeated Fatah in a brief civil war in 2007, establishing its own security force in the coastal enclave and leaving Abbas's group in control of just the West Bank, still under Israeli occupation.

Abbas has refrained from approving death sentences against Palestinians convicted of capital offences in the West Bank.

Source: Reuters, May 4, 2011

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Hamas court orders execution of 'collaborator'

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — A Gaza military court has condemned a man to death and sentenced another to forced labour for collaborating with Israel, the Hamas interior ministry said on Wednesday.

"The permanent tribunal on Tuesday sentenced the accused to death by hanging for treason and complicity with murder," the ministry said in a statement which identified the condemned man only as a resident of the central Gaza Strip.

The second man was sentenced to 15 years of forced labour, the statement said, adding that both judgements were subject to appeal.

In April, Gaza's Hamas rulers executed two alleged "collaborators" in the first executions to be carried out since the Islamist movement seized power in June 2007.

It was also the first time executions had been carried out in the coastal enclave for five years.

Palestinian law defines collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking as capital crimes.

It says the president must approve all execution orders before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognises the legitimacy of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose four-year term ended in 2009.

Israeli security forces routinely use Palestinian informers to thwart militant attacks and assist in the assassinations of top militants.

Source: AFP, March 31, 2011

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