Former PLO treasurer accuses Arafat of corruption: report
Posted: 9:54 PM (Manila Time) | Aug. 18, 2002
Agence France-Presse
Massive corruption
JERUSALEM - The former treasurer of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Jaweed al-Ghussein accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of massive corruption in remarks published in the Israeli press on Sunday.
"I discovered how he took money given to the Palestinian people by donor countries and put it in his own account," Ghussein, 71 told the best-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot.
Yediot said Ghussein, interviewed in London where he now lives, personally deposited half a billion dollars in secret bank accounts for the Palestinian leader.
The daily said Ghussein had transferred between 7.5 and 8.0 million dollars each month from Palestinian public funds to Arafat's personal account.
"There was never any clear demarcation between the tasks of the heads of PLO and the Palestinian Authority, so questions about the responsibility for good management went unanswered," he was quoted as saying. Arafat is the leader of both organisations.
"I constantly and vainly called for reforms and transparency and when I finally quit in 1996, I warned donor countries of the situation, because I could not simply carry on being held responsible for these disappearances of money," he said.
Ghussein, himself accused by the Palestinian Authority of embezzlement, fled to London via Israel, a Palestinian security source said Friday.
"Jaweed al-Ghussein, former chairman of the Palestinian National Fund who was under house arrest in Gaza City, was taken to the al-Makassed hospital in east Jerusalem from where he went to Ben Gurion airport, which he left for London showing a Jordanian passport," the source said.
Ghussein had embezzled millions of dollars during his time as PLO finance chief, the source said. While living in the United Arab Emirates, he had been arrested in Abu Dhabi in April 2001 and handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
The family of Ghussein, who always insisted he was innocent, accused the Palestinian Authority several times of having kidnapped him.
Israel's deputy foreign minister, Michael Melchior, admitted Sunday that Israel had helped Ghussein find refuge in London.
"We responded to the demands of various humanitarian organisations, including Amnesty International and religious groups, and we helped him leave via Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. Britain and Jordan were also involved in the effort," he said.
"This man was extremely sick and was to receive medical treatment in London. There was no reason for the Palestinian Authority to prevent him from leaving. Moreover, it never formally charged him with embezzlement," Melchior told Israeli public radio.
Yediot said that Ghussein "knew too much about Arafat and his financial dealings."
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