Ousted Fatah official Dahlan files Int'l Criminal Court complaint against Abbas

Former PA security chief complains that "arbitrary, dictatorial and corrupt behavior" of Abbas harms entire Palestinian people.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Dahlan & Mahmoud Abbas311 (photo credit: TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL / REUTERS)
Dahlan & Mahmoud Abbas311
(photo credit: TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL / REUTERS)
Ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan has accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of “dictatorship, arbitrariness and corruption.”
Dahlan’s accusations came in the form of an unprecedented legal complaint he recently lodged against Abbas with the UN, the EU and the International Criminal Court. The complaint was filed through the office of Israeli lawyer Zaki Kamal, deputy head of the Israel Bar Association.
A former commander of the PA’s Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, Dahlan said he decided to “take international and legal measures against Abbas so that everyone would know about his arbitrary, dictatorial and corrupt behavior, which harms not only me in person but all Palestinians.”
In his complaint, a copy of which was sent to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Dahlan accused Abbas of “political persecution” and “human rights violations.”
“Mahmoud Abbas is exploiting the money, resources of the Palestinians and Palestinian Authority, as well as the security forces he heads, to carry out his arbitrary measures [against Dahlan] without regard for any Palestinian or international law,” Dahlan wrote in the complaint.
He said that since 2010 he had been subjected to a “series of ugly personal persecutions.”
He noted that PA security forces raided his home in Ramallah in 2010 and arrested his bodyguards.
An elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, he also accused Abbas of stripping him of his parliamentary immunity. He said the PA had confiscated some of his property and bank accounts, and closed down websites affiliated with him.
Dahlan claimed that the campaign against him began after he warned against financial and administrative corruption among the top brass of the PA. He accused Abbas of “seizing” funds provided by the international community to the Palestinians.
The PA president’s office refused to comment on the accusations.