PALESTINIAN Authority president Mahmoud Abbas will ask US president Barack Obama to press Israel for a freeze of settlement construction when the two meet at the White House today.
Back home in the West Bank, however, it will be another day of anxiety for the family of Palestinian farmer Anwar Ibregat.
Mr Ibregat, a father of six, was sentenced to death last month after just 12 hours of deliberation by a Palestinian Authorit
y (PA) military tribunal for treason for allegedly selling land to Israeli settlers in 1994.
It was the first ever capital sentence for selling land to Israelis and it came two weeks after a PA official advocated the death penalty as a deterrent to anyone considering abetting the Israelis in their illegal settling of occupied territory at the expense of possibilities for a viable Palestinian state.
The trial was a gross denial of due process of law, raising questions about the PA's readiness to become an independent state along the lines Mr Abbas and Mr Obama will be discussing.
Mr Abbas intervened on Sunday to overturn the death sentence, with family members receiving a fax from his office stating that Mr Ibregat, 59, would not be executed.
Mr Abbas's intervention spares the PA international criticism but leaves Mr Ibregat and his family in limbo, wondering whether he still faces life imprisonment.
Mr Ibregat's wife, Karima, said that the defence had not had a chance to make its case. "Even if it is a one-month or one-year sentence, it is unjust," she said.
"Anyone who sells land should be executed, but my husband is innocent," she added.
She and her construction worker son Said accuse relatives, who they say have connections with the PA, of framing Mr Ibregat.
"My father is being made the scapegoat for people who sold land, to cover up for them. There are many people who sold land in this village and they are not being arrested," Said Ibregat said.
The irregularities in the trial were many, beginning with Mr Ibregat, a civilian, being placed under the jurisdiction of a military court.
The prosecutor, Issa Amer, said Mr Ibregat forged a signature 15 years ago that enabled the sale of 50,000sq m of land near the Jerusalem-Hebron highway to settlers.
At Mr Amer's behest, the court rejected the defence's request to bring a handwriting expert as a witness. Mr Amer said in an interview that this was "not necessary".
Then there was the fact that Mr Ibregat was being tried simultaneously for the same alleged crime in two courts. Civilian proceedings have been going on against him since 2003 for the same land sale in the Hebron Elementary Court. They continued even after he was arrested in November and last month brought before the military court.
Mr Amer conceded this was illegal, but said it was justified given the gravity of the alleged crime. "I agree that parallel trials are not allowed in law, but this is a serious case," he said.
He added that perhaps the civilian proceedings would now suffice, but that this was up to Mr Abbas.
Mr Amer said Mr Ibregat confessed to the land transaction during interrogation in November. "This was a fair trial. We allowed the defence to make all its points," he said.
Mr Amer was unable to say how much money Mr Ibregat received for the land. He said he prosecuted the case despite the lapse of 15 years since the crime was allegedly committed "because it's a big crime".
Ms Ibregat charged that her husband was tortured in prison with electric shocks to his legs, something Mr Amer denied.
Said Ibregat, who was also present at the military court in Hebron, said his father was allowed to speak for only two to three minutes before the sentence was passed and that he denied his guilt.
Asked about the length of the trial – two sessions of six hours each – Mr Amer said: "Twelve hours is enough."
The full article contains 673 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
