A 32-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Khalil-Abotouha, is in the custody of Canadian security police since his arrest a few days ago in Montreal, charged with “infractions of the Canadian immigration law.” The Palestinian, according to the Royal Mounted Police, is one of the leading members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is headed by George Habash. Before coming to Montreal, he lived in the Washington, D.C. area, police said.
The authorities intend to seek his deportation on grounds of allegedly entering Canada under false pretensions and also because there is a strong link between him and another member of the Popular Front, a Lebanese named Bassam Muhammed Ferkh, 24, who studied English in Edmonton, Alberta and who was deported from Canada Nov. 3 and is now reported to be in a Beirut jail in custody of Lebanese authorities.
Both individuals are charged with having participated in the murder of the U.S. Ambassador and his economic counselor while they were trying to cross from the Moslem sector of Beirut into the Christian sector on June 16, 1976. Officials here said they expected the pair to be charged with those killings.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
