PA to put collaborators on trial

Forty-three Palestinians accused of collaboration with Israel will go on trial next month, Wael Zakout, the Palestinian Authority General Prosecutor in the Gaza Strip disclosed on Saturday.

He said the defendants would be tried before civilian courts and not security tribunals, as has been the case so far.

If convicted, they will face the death penalty.
At least seven Palestinians have been sentenced to death over the past three years for assisting Israel in tracking down and killing wanted activists.

Only three were executed. There have not been any trials of collaborators in more than two years.
The PA is under growing pressure from Hamas and other factions to clamp down on Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel.

Earlier this month, Hamas and Fatah threatened that they would take the law into their hands and start punishing the informants if the PA does not take any action.

Zakout said some of the defendants are accused of helping Israel in the first botched assassination attempt against Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in Gaza City last year. Others have been charged with involvement in the killings of Raed Karmi and Muhanad Abu Halaweh, two senior Fatah gunmen.

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Can you say "rail-roaded"??