Het bekende recept: sex, leugens en videobanden. - En tussendoor werden ook nog miljoenen dollars gestolen.
Wouter
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday suspended his bureau chief Rafik Husseini over his involvement in a corruption scandal that included video footage of him trying to trade his influence for sex, Israel Radio reported.
Husseini's suspension will last until a committee established to probe the matter submits its findings on the allegations in about three weeks.
Channel 10 news aired an expose last week that alleges widespread corruption among Palestinian Authority officials, dating back to the time of former PA chairman Yasser Arafat.
Even though the Palestinian Authority has won international praise for cleaning up official corruption that was rampant under the Arafat, Abbas' Fatah movement continues to be dogged by the perception that some of its leading officials pursue personal gain and pleasure over the national good.
Husseini has not appeared in public since the video was broadcast by Channel 10 in a report that also included allegations of high-level financial wrongdoing.
The erudite, British-educated Husseini, who has often served as the point man for explaining the Palestinian cause to foreign audiences, was expected to appear on a current affairs program on Palestine TV on Friday evening, according to the station.
But Husseini did not show. Instead, the host read a statement from him, in which Husseini said he was the victim of a conspiracy by Israelis and some Palestinians to discredit him and the Palestinian president. He said he would respond at a later time.
"I promise the viewers to reveal the complete truth, and I am ready for accountability if it was proven that I did something wrong," said the Husseini statement read on the air.
Palestinian officials also claimed the video was part of an Israeli attempt to discredit Abbas and denounced Fahmi Shabaneh, the former Palestinian intelligence officer at the center of the drama, as a collaborator with Israel.
The allegations come at a time of deadlock in U.S. attempts to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Abbas has said he won't resume negotiations until Israel freezes settlement construction.
Shabaneh said that after Arafat's 2004 death, he was asked by Abbas to investigate official corruption, but that he was ignored when he presented his findings to the Palestinian leader.
Shabaneh said he began investigating Husseini after a woman complained that the chief of staff made suggestive remarks when she went to his office to ask for help with a family problem. Shabaneh said he set up cameras in the woman's apartment, with her permission, and filmed Husseini's next encounters with her.
In the video, Husseini is shown sitting on a couch in a living room, flanked by two women Shabaneh identifies as Husseini's secretary and the unidentified woman who sought his help.
During their conversation, Husseini is heard describing Abbas as aloof and lacking charisma and says Arafat surrounded himself with crooks. At some point, Husseini alludes to his own influence.
"Would you like a decree? Would you like me to issue a presidential decree for you?" he asks, though it's not clear to which of the two women the remark is addressed.
In a later scene, Husseini is shown undressing, alone, in a bedroom. He gets into bed, plumps the pillows and calls out to the unseen woman to join him. "Do I turn off the light or do you? What is the procedure?" he is heard asking the woman.
Moments later, Shabaneh enters the room with three other men and identifies himself. Husseini jumps out of bed and gets dressed.
The official Palestinian media have not reported the details, but the video appeared on YouTube and quickly became a main topic of conversation across the Palestinian territories.
The independent West Bank-based Ma'an news agency urged Husseini in an editorial to step down pending an investigation, arguing that he could no longer carry out his job effectively. "This is embarrassing to the Palestinian Authority, this is embarrassing to our people, this is embarrassing to our families," Maan editor-in-chief Nasser Laham, who wrote the editorial, said in an interview.
However, Laham also portrayed the Abbas aide as a victim of a smear campaign, calling Israeli TV's airing of the footage "a lynching."
In Gaza, Hamas claimed it has far more scandalous material involving Fatah officials but is holding back because it does not want to jeopardize attempts at Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah forces in 2007, and Hamas officials claim they obtained incriminating material at the time.
"We urge Fatah to stop cooperation with the occupation (Israel) and renounce the lowly people within its ranks and resume the national cause," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman.
In the Channel 10 broadcast, Shabaneh also produces documents allegedly showing that Palestinian Authority officials have stolen millions of dollars in public funds.
The TV report did not name the suspected officials but said they include Abbas confidants. It said one method was to overbill the Palestinian government for real estate purchases made in its name.
