April 25, 2002 Posted: 1406 GMT
CNN's Mike Hanna

"RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- An improvised Palestinian military court has convicted and sentenced to prison four Palestinian militants for the killing last year of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, according to a top Palestinian security official.

The trial took place inside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's besieged compound in Ramallah, and Israel was quick to dismiss the process and demand again that the suspects be handed over to Israeli authorities.

CNN's Mike Hanna reported the latest on the story from Ramallah.

HANNA: It's a bizarre situation, and certainly does appear to have been a bizarre legal process. It has been announced that four men, who were charged with the assassination last year of the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi have been tried and found guilty in a Palestinian legal process within the compound of Yasser Arafat.

Now, this compound has been surrounded and besieged by Israeli forces for a long period of time. The news of the conviction and trial of the four emerged at a time when I was speaking to the Palestinian information minister. He knew nothing about it.

And so, the situation is that these four men were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. One of them was sentenced to 18 years with hard labor. He was the one who the court found actually carried out the murder of the Israeli tourism minister. A man who drove the getaway car was sentenced to 12 years. The driver of the car was sentenced to eight years, and a man was also convicted of having known about the plot without telling the Palestinian Authority. He received a one-year sentence.

Now, what is bizarre about all of this is that the judge was a security officer with no previous legal background. A policeman in the compound was appointed attorney for the defense. So it is very much a bizarre situation, and this arising from the fact that there have been consistent demands for the trial and conviction and justice being done with those who carried out this assassination.

Now, the reaction from Israel has been pretty quick. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that, well, these men are just going to be tried twice, because he continues to insist that those responsible for the murder of the tourism minister are handed over to Israel for trial.

CNN: So this was sort of like an olive branch held out by Yasser Arafat to the Israelis?

HANNA: Well, very much so, on one level. There have been demands, and from the U.S. as well, a very strong demand last week from President Bush, that these men be brought to justice. The whole question of whether justice has been served in this case, well, that is open to debate. It was not a court. It was an extraordinary military tribunal, as it is called, a makeshift military tribunal.

But certainly, Yasser Arafat apparently [was] wanting to make clear that he is intent on bringing justice in this particular case, that he is taking action against those who assassinated that Israeli tourism minister.

However, from Israel's point of view, this is not enough, not even going into the debates about whether or not this was a proper trial. They continue to insist that the men must be handed over, a position that the Palestinians say is against every previous agreement and against the terms of the Oslo Accords, that it is not needed for the Palestinians to do so.

So there will be argument about this. There will be debate about it, but the Israelis continue to insist that this is meaningless on one level, that the men must still be handed over to an Israeli court for trial."