AhlulBayt News Agency - The Palestinian ex-prisoner Omar Nayef was assassinated Friday morning in the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria, family sources revealed.
On Friday, Omar Nayef, 52, was found dead in the Palestinian embassy where he had taken refuge after the Israeli ambassador to Sofia asked the Bulgarian authorities to extradite him in December 2015, Bulgarian radio reported that he had fallen from the fourth floor.
Imad Nayef, Omar’s brother, said that the family was informed today (26.2.2016) morning that their son was assassinated in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia without revealing any further information.
Earlier in December, the Israeli ambassador to Sofia asked the Bulgarian authorities to hand over the Palestinian former prisoner Omar Nayef who lives with his family in Bulgaria since 1994.
In a serious move, Bulgarian authorities detained Omar's older son in order to exert more pressure on him after he refused to hand himself in to the police.
Since then, Omar Nayef has taken refuge in the Palestinian embassy to escape extradition to Israel.
Born in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Omar was convicted and sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison in 1986 for carrying out an anti-occupation attack in occupation Jerusalem.
During his detention, Omar "had been beaten and tortured in prison. He was once put in solitary confinement for 60 days".
Yet, in 1990, Nayef was able to escape from his guards during a hospital visit and eventually made it out of the country. After living in various other Arab countries for four years, he moved to Bulgaria in 1994 and was later granted permanent residency.
The head of the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, accused Israeli intelligence agency Mossad of being behind the murder and urged an international investigation into the death.
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