Father murdered, says Palestinian envoy's daughter

The Palestinian ambassador to Prague was "deliberately killed", his daughter alleged on Thursday, a day after he died in an explosion after opening a safe at his home.

Czech police said the blast that killed Jamal al-Jamal might have been caused by mishandling an explosive securing the safe. They said they were not treating it as an attack or a terrorist incident.

In a further twist, investigators found unlicensed weapons at the Palestinian embassy, and the Czech foreign ministry said it would demand an explanation.

Jamal suffered lethal injuries to his head, chest and abdomen in the New Year's Day blast.

His daughter Rana al-Jamal, 30, said: "We believe my father was killed and that his death was something arranged and not an accident. How? We do not know, and that is what we want to know."

Born in Beirut in 1957, Jamal joined Fatah in 1975 and became an aide to the ambassador to Bulgaria four years later.

Jamal had been in Prague only since October but had served previously at the mission for two decades starting in the mid-1980s, the daughter said. He had used the safe during that period, and it stayed in Prague when he left, she added by telephone from Ramallah in the West Bank.

Palestine's diplomatic representatives in Prague were in the process of moving to a new embassy and residence, which share the same compound. Jamal was killed at the new residence.

"The safe was emptied and moved to the house. My father had been putting documents inside it, and it was open," Rana al-Jamal said. "The explosion took place while he used it."

She said her mother, who was there at the time, told her the safe was not badly damaged.

Nabil el-Fahel, a spokesman for the Palestinian embassy, said the safe was used on a daily basis to store cash.

Some safes can be fitted with small charges to destroy secret documents if it appears that the lock has been tampered with.

But Fahel said embassy staff was not aware that any explosive mechanism had been attached to the safe that Jamal opened.

Weapons found

Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek told Czech Radio that investigators had found weapons at the embassy that were not registered with local authorities. He did not reveal the quantity and type.

The police will investigate how the weapons got to the embassy, he said.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the embassy's staff had turned over the arms to Czech authorities. He did not elaborate on the type of weapons involved but said they had been retrieved from an old sack and had been untouched since Cold War times.

The Czech foreign ministry said it was concerned by the discovery. It said diplomats' weapons are subject to local laws on arms, which require registration and licensing.

"The ministry is concerned that among evidence ... were weapons not registered in the Czech Republic," the ministry said in a statement.

"If that is the case, the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations may have been breached, and we will demand an explanation," it added, referring to international rules that govern the activities of diplomats and embassies.

Czechoslovakia maintained friendly relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1980s, but the Czech Republic, a European Union and NATO member, has been supportive of Israel.

Reuters-AFP-Xinhua

(China Daily 01/04/2014 page7)