Search for convicted PA embezzler leads to Canada

The search for Muhammad Rashid, a former adviser and confidante of deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who was convicted in absentia of embezzling $34 million from the Palestinian Authority, has led to Canada.

According to a report published in The Globe and Mail Monday, the Palestinian Authority has asked Ottawa for help in tracking down Rashid, who has held a Canadian passport since 2003 and who maintains business ties with the country.

In 1999, Rashid reportedly invested through the Palestinian Authority in a pharmaceutical company based in Ontario, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. He even served on the company’s board of directors before the company bought out the Palestinian investment in 2003.

However, the Canadian government reportedly said there was little it could do to trace Rashid. “Our capacity to assist is limited” because Canada does not have a formal legal-assistance treaty with the Palestinian Authority, The Globe and Mail quoted Canadian Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman Amanda Reid as saying.

According to the report, the Palestinian Authority asked Canada for help due to suspicions that Rashid, known publicly as Khaled Salam, was traveling on a Canadian passport, even though he is thought to be living in London, not Canada. Canadian citizenship laws require that residents live in Canada for three or four years before applying for citizenship; however, Rashid was known to have been living in the Middle East, and not Canada, prior to 2003 — making Palestinian authorities wonder how he came by a Canadian passport.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki reportedly asked his Canadian counterpart, John Baird — currently visiting the Middle East — for assistance in tracking Rashid down, as well as finding the funds he was convicted of stealing.

In May last year, the Palestinian Authority’s Anti-Corruption Commission issued an international arrest warrant for Rashid, who left the Palestinian territories in 2004 following Arafat’s death. In June, he was convicted in his absence of embezzling millions of dollars from the coffers of the Palestinian Authority and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Rashid, an Iraqi Kurd, refused the request of the Palestinian prosecutor general to appear before a local court for questioning surrounding accusations of corruption and embezzlement during his tenure as head of the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF).

The accusations leveled at Rashid revived the question of Arafat’s own involvement in embezzlement of Palestinian funds. Jaweed Al-Ghussein, the former chairman of the Palestinian National Fund — the financial branch of the PLO — had accused Arafat of stealing millions of dollars in donations from Arab states.

Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.