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| The execution was filmed and broadcast live from a nearby building. |
2 men were hanged to death in Gaza City over the killing of Mazen Faqha in March, while a 3rd was executed by firing squad, said an AFP correspondent who attended the executions.
Hundreds of people were allowed to watch the executions, though the streets around the site were closed to the public.
1 of those executed, Ashraf Abu Leila, was named as the alleged assassin while the other 2 men, who were not named, were convicted of assisting him.
The executions, which come only 2 weeks after the announcement of their arrests, were immediately condemned by human rights activists.
Human Rights Watch said the "rush" to kill the men "smacks of militia rule, not the rule of law".
Mazen Faqha was shot dead on March 24 near his house in Gaza City.
He had been in charge of forming cells for Hamas's military wing in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas immediately blamed its arch-enemy Israel, with which it has fought 3 wars since 2008, and implemented strict border restrictions on those seeking to leave the Palestinian enclave.
Source: al-monitor.com, May 25, 2017
Hams executes three over murder of Gaza commander
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in Gaza on Thursday said it executed the suspected killer of Mazen Fuqaha, along with his two alleged accomplices.
The Interior Ministry said the the suspected killer and one of the alleged accomplices were hanged, while the second alleged accomplice was shot to death.
Grainy images of what a Gaza-based news organization said were the executions were broadcast on Facebook Live. The images appeared to be shot from a distant building.
Following the executions, Hamas warned Gazans against publishing images of the executions.
The suspected killer and alleged accomplices were sentenced to death by a Hamas military court on Sunday, which said they took part in the killing of Fuqaha.
Fuqaha, formerly a senior leader of Hamas’s armed wing, was mysteriously assassinated on March 24 in front of his house in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza.
Human rights groups criticized the haste in which the three men were sentenced.
“Rushing to put men to death based on an unreviewable decision of a special military court days after announcing their arrests… smacks of militia rule, not the rule of law,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch.
Hamas formed a special court to try the suspected killer and two alleged accomplices, which quickly reached a verdict.
Hamas military prosecutor Fadl al-Jadeili has dismissed human rights groups’ criticism of the special court, saying they do not have all the details of Fuqaha’s assassination.
Since taking over the Gaza Strip in an armed coup in 2007, Hamas has executed 28 people sentenced to death by its courts, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Source: Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2017
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