Czech police found weapons at the Palestinian Authority mission in Prague where the PA ambassador was killed Wednesday after a safe he was handling exploded.
Police confirmed that “some weapons” were found but did not reveal any details on their type or number.
So far, the explosion has been written off as an accident that is not related to terror, and the assumption was that the safe was rigged to explode if someone tried to remove its contents, which may have been secret documents. However, that has changed dramatically with a statement by Palestinian Authority mission spokesman Nabil el-Fahel, quoted by the Ma’an PA news agency, that “the safe was pretty old, it was purchased in mid-1980s and according to our information there was no built-in anti-theft system.”
So maybe there really were explosives in the safe? But that doesn’t make sense because since when do PA officials handle explosives, especially when they are on a mission of peace with Israel?
The victim of the blast was new at his post, and the safe had been moved to the apartment from the former PLO offices in the Prague, but Palestinian Authority officials also fumbled their explanations on the background of the safe. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that the safe has not been in use for at least 20 years.
However, el-Fahel said the safe was in use on a “daily” basis” and that Malki may have been referring to another safe, which is empty.
The plot thickens and answers, particularly about the weapons, probably will not be very clear.