2019-10-07

West Bank

Human Rights Defenders / Gaza

His Excellency the President of the State of Palestine, the Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas,

Subject: MUSAWA Demands the President Not to Approve the Rent Allowance Request Filed by the President of the Transitional High Judicial Council and Demands Both the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission & the State Audit Administrative Control Bureau to Take the Needed Legal Action in its Regard

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its warmest greetings to your Excellency, noting that the center has received a copy of memo No 1/3931, sent to your excellency on 2/10/2019, by the President of the Transitional High Judicial Council, requesting your approval of covering the rent allowance of the apartment inhabited by him before holding his position, equivalent to 6600$, in direct contradiction with the provisions of Decree-Law No 17 of 2019, which clarified the emoluments of both the President of the Transitional Council and the member, whose conditions are similar to the president’s, in terms of their experience as judges who were referred to retirement by the time they reached the legal retirement age provided in the Judicial Authority Act, and in terms of receiving pensions since the beginning of their retirement, noting that decree-law No 17 of 2019 has provided for granting both of them a remuneration determined by your Excellency., however, the decree-law, which identifies the time frame of their tasks, did not provide any job description for any of them, which turns this decree-law into a contract of a significant task within a fixed time frame, and thus marks the request filed by the President of the Transitional Judicial Council as a breach of the decree-law governing his mission and rights.  

Without intending any personal prejudice, MUSAWA asks your Excellency to identify the legal, administrative and financial aspects of the mentioned request, to take the needed legal action in its regard, and to turn it down, as it is unlawful, lacks the legal justification, and entails major amendment to the mentioned decree-law, which could involve a direct violation of the laws in force, given that it represents an attempt to obtain a personal concession in violation of the law, noting that there are major differences between the permanent and transitional presidents of the Transitional Judicial Council.

Based on forgoing, the request of the Transitional Council’s President does not meet the conditions of rent allowance, as he resides in the same city to which he was assigned, besides the fact that he is retired since 2009 and that by the decree-law, which determines the financial rights of the transitional president by the remuneration determined by your Excellency.

With All Due Respect,

Issued on 7/10/2019

The Executive Manager

Ahlam Tarayra

Note: The same memo was sent to both the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission & the State Audit Administrative Control Bureau.