Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 26 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

PFLP mourns and salutes the martyr Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed, assassinated in Bulgaria

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes and mourns the martyr, Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed, the former Palestinian political prisoner and lifelong struggler for the freedom of Palestine, assassinated this morning in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed had taken refuge in the Palestinian embassy after he was pursued by Zionist and Bulgarian forces for extradition 25 years after he escaped from Zionist prisons in 1990 following a 40-day hunger strike. He had been imprisoned for an operation targeting illegal Zionist settlers in Jerusalem, along with fellow strugglers including his brother, and including Samer Mahroum, recently re-imprisoned by Zionist forces following his earlier release.

Escaping Zionist imprisonment, Comrade Nayef Zayed traveled through the Arab world and to Bulgaria, a model of steadfastness, creativity and ongoing resilience and resistance. It became clear that he was a target for Zionist occupation intelligence and security services in an attempt to eradicate this model of resilience and example of a Palestinian living free of Zionist jails.

We in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hold fully responsible for this nefarious crime the Zionist State and the Israeli Mossad who targeted Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed for assassination, as we hold responsible the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Embassy in Bulgaria who failed to protect him and his security, and the Bulgarian government and security forces who pursued Comrade Nayef Zayed for arrest and imprisonment for over three months. We note the full responsibility of the Palestinian Authority at the highest levels for failing to protect Comrade Nayef Zayed from assassination, up to and including PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Ambassador Ahmad al-Madbouh.

This crime took place as the highest officials of the Palestinian Authority met with the highest officials of the Bulgarian state in Ramallah, with no apparent demands made for our pursued comrade, the martyr Omar Nayef Zayed.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine vows to pursue in all ways the truth of the assassination of the martyr Comrade Omar Nayef Zayed, to stand by the family of our martyred comrade, and to hold accountable those responsible for his targeting and assassination. We pledge as always to remain on his path of unremitting struggle for liberation of Palestine, its land and people, as he joins the convoy of the great martyrs of our people whose lives have been taken inside and outside Palestine by the murderous Zionist colonial project.

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