Five Fayyad ministers to face corruption

[ 08/07/2011 - 10:44 AM ] 

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Rafik Al-Natshe, the head of the anti-corruption bureau in the illegitimate Ramallah government of Salam Fayyadh said Thursday that the bureau would lift immunity of five ministers suspected of corruption.

Natshe didn’t mention names of the five ministers, but sources close to the bureau informed the PIC that the five ministers were the minister of health, the minister of economy, the minister of justice, the minister of agriculture, and the minister of education.

But MP Hassan Khuraisha, the second-deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), said ministers have no immunity unless they are also members of the PLC.

He added that investigating ministers in the government should be the work of the elected Palestinian parliament and not the anti-corruption bureau headed by Natshe, explaining that the unexplained suspension of Parliament till now made things up-side-down and placed such investigations in the hand of the bureau.

Local observes said that the lifting of the immunity came in the wake of persisting reports affirming that the "unconstitutional" Fayyadh government was riddled with corruption and many lawmakers have repeatedly called to dissolve it and to put under investigation.

For his part, MP Fathi Al-Qarawi stressed the necessity to form new unity government to honestly manage the daily affairs of the Palestinian people and to follow-up and investigate all corruption files committed by Fayyadh's cabinet members.

"The decision of the bureau came at a very sensitive time for the Palestinian arena, especially after the signing of the national reconciliation agreement; and I believe that the investigation should have been started a long time ago, and should have included not only five ministers but rather every corrupt official in the Palestinian institution," Qarawi underlined in reaction to the bureau's decision.

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