RAMALLAH, March 1, 2016 (WAFA) - A special commission has started inquiry into the killing of former Palestinian prisoner Omar al-Nayef in Bulgaria, Tuesday announced head of the special commission of inquiry.

Head of the Special Commission Taysir Jaradat announced that upon its arrival to Bulgaria, the commission started an inquiry into the killing of Omar al-Nayef, who died Friday after being found with fatal injuries inside the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria.

The commission interviewed members of al-Nayef’s family, diplomatic personnel and some members of the Palestinian community.

Jaradat made these comments during a meeting with Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Valentine Poryazov in Bulgaria.

Jaradat indicated the Bulgarian government’s willingness to provide the commission of inquiry with the findings of investigations into this case and affirmed that the commission would spare no effort to reveal the truth.

President Mahmoud Abbas instructed the formation of the special commission of inquiry to look into the circumstances surrounding what was described as al-Nayef’s assassination.

Several Palestinian officials, including Head of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission Issa Qaraqe, described al-Nayef’s killing as assassination and demanded an international investigation into it. Israel’s overseas intelligence agency Mossad is accused of being behind Nayef’s death.

According to Middle East Eye, al-Nayef, a former Palestinian political prisoner, died after being found with fatal injuries inside the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria. He sought refuge in the embassy in Sofia in mid December after Israel demanded his extradition to serve out a life sentence for allegedly murdering an Israeli settler in 1986.

Coming originally from the northern West Bank district of Jenin, al-Nayef had been living in Bulgaria since 1994 following his escape from a Bethlehem hospital in 1990, where he had been receiving treatment for problems caused by a 40-day hunger strike against his sentence.

Al-Nayef denied committing murder and had said that he was tortured into confessing by Israeli authorities. 

Israeli authorities had tried to have him returned to their custody under an extradition treaty agreed with the EU.

It was reported by the Jerusalem Post in January Bulgarian authorities had given al-Nayef three days to hand himself over.

Al-Nayef refused to give himself up and continued to live in the Palestinian embassy, where he was discovered on Friday morning with fatal injuries.

The Sofia News Agency reported that a Palestinian embassy official had said al-Nayef’s death had been caused by “violence”.

Jaradat was reported in local media as saying that embassy officials had found the al-Nayef lying in the mission’s garden “covered in blood”. Al-Nayef was “rushed to hospital but died en route”.

K.F/T.R