Officials said Saad could be executed by a firing squad. The last death
sentence carried out by the PA was in 2001.
    "There is enough reason for such a penalty," PA presidential adviser
Nimer Hamad said. "He caused the death of Palestinian citizens."
    In 2006, the PA agreed to an Israeli request to suspend death sentences
against 50 Palestinians convicted of working for Israeli intelligence. The
PA agreement was prompted by a petition to Israel's High Court to rescue the
Palestinians held in PA jails.
    Saad was arrested by PA Military Intelligence in August 2007. The death
sentence was the second passed by the PA court in April 2008.
    On April 6, the High Military Court convened in Jenin and sentenced
Tha'er Mahmoud Hosni Ermeilat to death. Ermeliat, a 23-year-old resident of
Thanaba, was convicted of murdering a 20-year-old from the Tulkarm refugee
camp in 2006.
    Meanwhile, three Palestinian insurgents escaped from a PA prison in the
West Bank town of Jericho. Two of the fugitives were identified as members
of the Popular Resistance Committees, based in the Gaza Strip and aligned
with the Hamas regime.
    "People escape from prisons all over the world," Jericho police chief
Col. Khaled Abu Kamel said. "We are investigating."
    The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called on PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas to commute the latest death sentences. The center demanded that the PA
abolish the death penalty in accordance with interantional law.
    "PCHR is extremely concerned over the continued utilization of the death
penalty in the PNA," the center said. "The center calls for passing a
unified penal code that conforms with international human rights standards,
especially those pertaining to the death penalty."