Special to WorldTribune.com

RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Authority, facing increasing complaints
of corruption, plans to investigate the financial adviser of the late Yasser
Arafat and 84 other cases.

Officials said the PA’s Anti-Corruption Commission wants to obtain
custody of Mohammed Rashid, the financial adviser of Arafat until the death
of the Palestinian leader in 2004.

The officials said Rashid was believed to have transferred millions of dollars in government funds to establish fictitious companies abroad.

“We asked him to come to face these charges, but he did not come,”
commission chairman Rafik Natshe said.

Natshe said the PA has asked Interpol to find and arrest Natshe. He
said Rashid marked the biggest of 85 cases of alleged corruption encountered by the commission, which works with a special court.
“There are bigger ones ahead,” Natshe said.

Rashid left the West Bank within weeks of Arafat’s death and was said to have visited Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates as well as European states.

Officials said the PA turned to some of these countries to help find Natshe, freeze his assets and extradite him to Ramallah.

The commission and the special court were established in 2010 amid
complaints within the ruling Fatah movement of official corruption. So far,
the panel has forced the resignation of two Cabinet ministers accused of
improprieties.

On May 6, the commission filed charges against Rashid, Natshe said. Days
later, Rashid, a Kurd, responded to the charges and said he had not been
contacted by the PA since 2008.

“This man came to the Palestinian revolution without anything,” Natshe
told PA radio on May 16. “We want to ask where did he get all his money
from? This is Palestinian money and should be returned to the Palestinian
people.”

Officials said Prime Minister Salam Fayad has encouraged the PA
commission. On May 16, Fayad headed a new government that retained such
senior members as Interior Minister Said Abu Ali and Foreign Minister Riad
Malki.

  Adviser charged with stealing millions following Arafat’s death, left West Bank after Arafat’s death, Mohammed Rashid, PA Anti-Corruption Commission, Salam Fayad