Abbas vows to free militant after pullback

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A Palestinian militant accused of ordering the killing of an Israeli minister will be freed from jail in Jericho when Israel pulls back from the city this week, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.

But Israel said it had not agreed with the Palestinians that Ahmed Saadat or any of the other three it accuses in the 2001 assassination could be released after the redeployment around the West Bank city set for Wednesday.

Abbas told Reuters by telephone that Saadat and Fuad al-Shobaki, an aide to the late Yasser Arafat accused of arms smuggling, would be released after Israeli troops left.

"Saadat and Shobaki will be released from prison in Jericho when Jericho is handed over to the Palestinians," Abbas said.

"The two men were placed by Israel on the wanted list and the agreement we have with Israel is that once it leaves our cities, the fugitives will have immunity. Therefore, they will be freed, and the Israelis are aware of this."

But Israel's Defence Ministry said Israel and the Palestinians agreed at a meeting on Monday where they discussed the pullback from Jericho "that the murderers of (Tourism Minister) Rehavam Zeevi will remain in prison."

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters the fate of the men was still under discussion and "we hope to reach an agreement in the very near future."

Israel agreed with the Palestinians on Monday that it would begin a long delayed withdrawal from Jericho and other West Bank cities as part of peacemaking measures meant to follow a ceasefire reached at a Feb. 8 summit.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Saadat and three others blamed for the killing of Zeevi, as well as Shobaki, are being guarded in a Jericho prison by the British under a deal between Israel and the Palestinians in 2002.

The PFLP said it killed Zeevi in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of its leader Abu Ali Mustafa.

A Palestinian court jailed the men, but the supreme court later ruled they should be freed. Palestinian officials said they remained incarcerated in Jericho "for their own safety" to protect against Israeli assassination.

Abdel-Rahim Mallouh, a PFLP leader in an Israeli prison, said Abbas had called to tell him the cases of Saadat and Shobaki would be dealt with alongside those of other fugitives that Israel has said it will stop pursuing.

- REUTERS