The body of a Palestinian security officer was discovered on Tuesday in his
apartment in Ramallah. The officer, Hassan Jalayta, 40, from Jericho, had
been summoned for questioning by his commanders.
Jalayta left his family
home in Jericho on Tuesday morning and was supposed to report for questioning,
but did not show up, a Palestinian Authority security source said.
The
source did not say why the officer, who worked for the Preventive Security
Service, had been summoned for questioning in Ramallah.
His body was
discovered in the morning in his rented apartment in the Um al- Sharayet
neighborhood of Ramallah, the source said.
Adnan Dmairi, spokesman for
the PA security forces in the West Bank, said that the officer’s body has been
sent to a forensic institute for autopsy to determine the cause of
death.
Jalayta’s family members, however, claimed that he died while
being held inside the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service in
Ramallah.
The family staged a protest outside the police station in
Jericho, demanding an inquiry into their son’s death.
Last year, another
PA security officer, Osama Aqel, died while being questioned by the PA’s General
Intelligence Service.
The PA said then that Aqel had committed suicide by
jumping from the third floor while he was being escorted to court. Aqel had been
suspected of working for ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan.
Dahlan, a
former PA security commander, was expelled from Fatah and forced to leave the
West Bank after he fell out with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. He is living in the
United Arab Emirates, and has since been waging a campaign against Abbas through
the media, accusing the PA president and his sons of corruption.
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