RAMALLAH, Apr. 7 (JMCC) - Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas dismissed a top aide, Rafiq Husseini, on Wednesday over his involvement in a sex scandal caught on videotape.
Husseini called the scandal 'entrapment' but accepted his dismissal after admitting wrongdoing. Husseini was videotaped in a compromising situation with a woman hired by a Palestinian security agent, Fahmi Shabaneh, as part of a personal initiative to prove corruption in the upper echelons of the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Husseini called the taping entrapment and said he never misused his position.
The trap was in the end for the purpose of me stopping my work against corruption and against the Israeli occupation, he said.
Nevertheless, the erudite, British-educated Husseini accepted the president's decision, calling the mishap a personal error of judgment.
Abbas at first only suspended Husseini and appointed a committee to investigate the matter. His aide and a member of the committee, Rafiq Natche, said Wednesday that Abbas took their advice and fired Husseini.
The committee decided to end the work of Rafiq Husseini because he admitted before the committee that he was caught in a place where he shouldn't have been, Natche said. He added that Abbas praised Husseini and called him a victim of entrapment...
Read the full article at the
Associated Press...