PA parliamentary official: Abbas does not have the right to revoke immunity of PA parliament members
Headline: "Hassan Khreisheh to Wattan: The [PA] president does not have the right to remove the immunity of PA Parliament members"
"Second Deputy Chairman of the PA Parliament (Legislative Council) Hassan Khreisheh emphasized that [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas does not have the right to remove the immunity of PA Parliament members.
Khreisheh said in an interview with the [independent Palestinian news] agency Wattan that the removal of immunity from one of the [PA] Parliament members is solely under the authority of the PA Parliament. The process of removing immunity takes place through a legal chain that begins with a request submitted by the attorney general to remove the immunity of one of the parliament members. Afterwards, the request passes to the Legal Committee of the PA Parliament. After that, it is carried out only if two thirds of the parliament members agree to the request and otherwise it is considered illegal, according to Khreisheh.
Khreisheh rejected the legality of the conditions under which the [Supreme] Constitutional Court was established, and said that the process of its establishment are not clear, as PA Parliament Chairman Aziz Dweik was not present at the swearing in [of the court] before President Abbas. Likewise, he added that it was established specifically to serve only political goals only.
Regarding their briefing as PA Parliament members regarding the accusations directed against the five [parliament] members whose immunity the president decided to remove, Khreisheh emphasized that nobody turned to them or briefed them regarding the accusations and the reasons for removing the immunity, as the president thinks that the PA Parliament does not exist… At the end of the interview, Khreisheh said that President Abbas knows that the PA Parliament is not active, and he wants it to be inactive, and therefore the [PA] Parliament must seek other options, the most preferable one being turning to the judgment of the people through elections."
"Second Deputy Chairman of the PA Parliament (Legislative Council) Hassan Khreisheh emphasized that [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas does not have the right to remove the immunity of PA Parliament members.
Khreisheh said in an interview with the [independent Palestinian news] agency Wattan that the removal of immunity from one of the [PA] Parliament members is solely under the authority of the PA Parliament. The process of removing immunity takes place through a legal chain that begins with a request submitted by the attorney general to remove the immunity of one of the parliament members. Afterwards, the request passes to the Legal Committee of the PA Parliament. After that, it is carried out only if two thirds of the parliament members agree to the request and otherwise it is considered illegal, according to Khreisheh.
Khreisheh rejected the legality of the conditions under which the [Supreme] Constitutional Court was established, and said that the process of its establishment are not clear, as PA Parliament Chairman Aziz Dweik was not present at the swearing in [of the court] before President Abbas. Likewise, he added that it was established specifically to serve only political goals only.
Regarding their briefing as PA Parliament members regarding the accusations directed against the five [parliament] members whose immunity the president decided to remove, Khreisheh emphasized that nobody turned to them or briefed them regarding the accusations and the reasons for removing the immunity, as the president thinks that the PA Parliament does not exist… At the end of the interview, Khreisheh said that President Abbas knows that the PA Parliament is not active, and he wants it to be inactive, and therefore the [PA] Parliament must seek other options, the most preferable one being turning to the judgment of the people through elections."