Court order to free militant leader quashed by Arafat

Yasser Arafat faced a backlash from his own people last night after quashing a decision by the Palestinian judiciary ordering the release of a radical faction leader who is jailed in the West Bank town of Jericho under the supervision of British and American wardens.

The Arafat-controlled Palestinian cabinet announced that it could not implement the court's ruling because Israel had closed off Jericho with its army, and was threatening to assassinate the prisoner.

The Palestinian High Court's ruling that Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), should be freed infuriated Israel, which has accused him of masterminding the assassination of its far-right tourism minister, and sent tensions soaring anew.

It also placed Mr Arafat in a severe dilemma, as he is under intense pressure from the Palestinian population ­ and the Americans ­ to clean up his Palestinian Authority, and recently signed a law on the independence of the judiciary. The jailing of the PFLP leader, and five others, was the centre-piece of a deal brokered last month by the British and the Americans which led Israel to agree to release Mr Arafat after a month-long military siege of his West Bank headquarters. Foreign Office sources said they were watching the situation closely.

The cabinet's move did not remove the damage caused by the affair to the latest mission by the CIA director, George Tenet, who arrived yesterday to find both sides tearing up previous American remedies for restoring regional calm.

While Palestinian judges sought to end the detention of Mr Saadat, who has not been tried, work started on a large new Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem. Israel Radio said it would be built next to the Palestinian village of Jabel Mukaber, and would comprise hundreds of homes, a hotel, and a cable car.

Settlement-building in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has long been opposed by the United States, which sees a construction freeze as a vital step in the path back to negotiations. However, US officials are usually more ambivalent about building in east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 in a move almost wholly unrecognised by the international community.

The Israeli army declined officially to confirm whether its decision to seal off Jericho was linked to the court's ruling on the PFLP leader. But, before the cabinet decision, Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, said Israel would not allow him to be freed. "We will take all the necessary steps so that it will not be possible to release a person who was involved in murder, who ordered murder, and whose organisation carries out murders to this day," he said.

Israel Radio shed some light on the possible meaning of "necessary steps" by reporting that Israeli officials were threatening to assassinate Mr Saadat on his release. As Israel's forces have carried out scores of assassinations during the Palestinian intifada, these threats are certain to be taken seriously by Mr Arafat and his aides.

The ruling on Mr Saadat came from a three-judge panel, which found that there was no evidence linking him to the killing of the 74-year-old Israeli Tourism Minister, Rechavam Zeevi, shot dead in a Jerusalem hotel last October.

Israel's Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said Mr Saadat's release would free Israel from its deal in April to withdraw from Ramallah ­ where its forces besieged Mr Arafat's headquarters off and on for months.

By ignoring the ruling, Mr Arafat will further alienate the Palestinian population in the occupied territories, and make a mockery of his recent reforms ­ responding to domestic pressure for a more democratic system. It will add to the hollow ring that already hovers around President George Bush's calls for the Palestinians to practice good governance.

Theoretically, the court's order is binding and does not require Mr Arafat's ratification, although its past decisions on releasing political prisoners have often been shelved.

One of those who brought the case, Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said it was a "very important test case" and called for Mr Saadat's immediate release. "You can't talk about democratic reforms and human rights, and then not implement court rulings," he said.

Mr Arafat and his advisers will be bracing themselves for the response on the street. The bulk of Palestinians regard the PFLP leader and his associates as heroes of their resistance against the Israeli occupation ­ which began with the 1967 war exactly 35 years ago today. Many Palestinians were full of contempt when Yasser Arafat agreed to allow them to be jailed in return for his own freedom.