05-19-2006, 07:46 PM
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the Palestinian attorney general to investigate a senior Hamas official who was caught trying to smuggle $817,000 into the Gaza Strip, a senior presidential adviser said Friday.
Sami Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle the money into Gaza from Egypt earlier in the day, a possible sign of how desperate the cash-starved Hamas government is for money. He was stopped at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza-Egypt border.
âPresident Abbas has sent the money and the file to the attorney general,â said Abbas adviser Saeb Erekat. âIt has become a legal case that requires an investigation.â
Abu Zuhri told Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera that the money was donated privately by individuals he met during a tour of Arab nations.
Palestinian officials said he was on his way back from Qatar, whose government pledged $50 million to the Palestinian Authority but hasnât been able to transfer the cash because of Western economic sanctions on the militantly anti-Israel Hamas government.
âHe (Abu Zuhri) did not declare that money, he tried to smuggle it,â De La Guardia said.
The Hamas government has been broke since the West and Israel dried up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid because of Hamasâ refusal to disarm and recognize Israel.
The cutoffs have rendered Hamas unable to pay two months of back wages to government employees who provide for one-third of people in the already impoverished West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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Damn, usually those guys are smuggling money OUT of the country.
Sami Abu Zuhri was caught trying to smuggle the money into Gaza from Egypt earlier in the day, a possible sign of how desperate the cash-starved Hamas government is for money. He was stopped at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza-Egypt border.
âPresident Abbas has sent the money and the file to the attorney general,â said Abbas adviser Saeb Erekat. âIt has become a legal case that requires an investigation.â
Abu Zuhri told Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera that the money was donated privately by individuals he met during a tour of Arab nations.
Palestinian officials said he was on his way back from Qatar, whose government pledged $50 million to the Palestinian Authority but hasnât been able to transfer the cash because of Western economic sanctions on the militantly anti-Israel Hamas government.
âHe (Abu Zuhri) did not declare that money, he tried to smuggle it,â De La Guardia said.
The Hamas government has been broke since the West and Israel dried up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid because of Hamasâ refusal to disarm and recognize Israel.
The cutoffs have rendered Hamas unable to pay two months of back wages to government employees who provide for one-third of people in the already impoverished West Bank and Gaza Strip.
---------------------------
Damn, usually those guys are smuggling money OUT of the country.
