Abbas foe Dahlan sentenced to three years in jail for corruption

An exiled Palestinian lawmaker and political rival of President Mahmoud Abbas has been sentenced to prison and payment of fines for corruption.

Mohammed Dahlan was sentenced to a 3-year jail term and a fine payment of $16 million in absentia by an anti-corruption court in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, his lawyer Salameh Halaseh said Wednesday.

The conviction came just two days after Abbas lifted the immunity of five members of the Palestinian parliament, including Dahlan, exposing them to criminal prosecution. The other four are reportedly allied to Dahlan.

He lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates after being expelled from the Western-backed Palestinian Fatah Party in 2012.

His lawyer slammed the sentencing as part of attempts by Abbas, who also leads the secular Palestinian faction, to marginalize political rivals.

Another Dahlan attorney, Sevag Torossian, further described his conviction as a "cleansing exercise" within Fatah for Abbas.

Torossian further alleged that the case against his client had been in the making for years but the charges were struck down in 2015 when a Palestinian court ruled that Dahlan was immune from prosecution as a parliamentarian.

Last month, however, the Palestinian Constitutional Court issued a ruling, granting Abbas the authority to revoke immunity of lawmakers without the consent of parliament.

A coalition of Palestinian human rights organizations censured the lifting of immunity for the five legislators on Wednesday.

"Parliamentary immunity is one of the most important constitutional principles," said the Council of Palestinian Human Rights Organizations in a statement, describing its lifting "an act of aggression against the popular will."

The statement also cautioned about the potential "collapse of the entire political system and disappearance of basic law."

Dahlan, who has called for 81-year-old Abbas to step down, is believed to enjoy the backing of a number of Arab countries.

A May report said Israel and its allies, including the UAE, Egypt and Jordan, were planning to overthrow Abbas and replace him with Dahlan.

The UAE had already held talks with Tel Aviv about the initiative for Dahlan’s comeback, the online news portal Middle East Eye quoted unidentified Palestinian and Jordanian sources as saying.