Hamas court sentences alleged killer of Mazen Fuqaha to death
Two accomplices were also sentenced to death for the March assassination.
By ADAM RASGONUpdated: MAY 22, 2017 11:42Hamas sentences three Palestinians to death over commander's killing (credit: REUTERS)
A Hamas military court sentenced three Gazans to death on Sunday for their alleged roles in the assassination of Hamas military leader Mazen Fuqaha.Fuqaha was mysteriously assassinated in late March near his home in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.The suspected killer and one of his alleged accomplices were sentenced to death by hanging, while another alleged accomplice was sentenced to death by firing squad.The sentences cannot be appealed, according to military court chairman Nasser Suleiman.Hamas Politburo chairman Ismail Haniyeh announced the arrest of the alleged killer and suspected accomplices on May 11.The court said that the suspected killer, referred to as A.L., has a history of spying for Israel that dates back to before Operation Protective Edge in 2014.“He was connected to an [Israeli] intelligence officer called ‘Abu al-Abid’... He was tasked with a number of missions,” a report in Al-Rai, an official Hamas news outlet, said.Pertaining to the details of Fuqaha’s assassination, the report said the suspected killer “surprised” the slain Hamas leader in his garage, shooting him in the head and chest from close range.Multiple accounts of the assassination have said that Fuqaha was killed in a garage below his house.The court said that the two alleged accomplices, referred to as H.A. and A.N., carried out reconnaissance of Fuqaha’s home for Israel.
Following the verdict on Sunday, pictures of the suspected killer and the alleged accomplices surrounded by security forces were released by official Hamas media. It is not clear when their sentences will be carried out.Hamas leaders did not immediately comment on the execution sentences.Hamas executed three men accused of collaborating with Israel in early April, and human rights groups have condemned Hamas for carrying out executions.“The death penalty is a barbaric practice that has no place in a modern state,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, said in April.Since taking over the Gaza Strip in an armed coup in 2007, Hamas has executed 25 people sentenced to death by its courts, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.