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In February 1969, Israel first arrested him for PFLP activities, detaining for three months - then for 28 months in 1970, 10 months in 1973, and 45 days in 1975. That year, he graduated from UNWRA's Ramallah Teaching Training College, specializing in math. In 1976, he was arrested again and held four years. In April 1981, he was elected to PLFP's Central Committee. In 1989, he was arrested and detained nine months, again in 1992 for 13 months, then released but declared a "wanted person," subject to re-arrest without cause.
In 1994, he became the PFLP's West Bank leader, arrested again in 1995, briefly detained by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1996, then arrested by the PA with other PFLP members. On February 27, 1997, following a hunger strike, he was released without charge, authorities fearing he might die in prison. In fact, he collapsed, became comatose and needed emergency treatment in Ramallah Hospital.
Arrested again in 2002, the PA held him at Jericho Prison for over four years. On August 20, 2002, Israeli forces assassinated his brother, Mohammed. On January 25, 2006, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council on the Abu Ali Mustafa slate. On March 14, 2006, the IDF stormed the prison, abducting Sa'adat and five others, incarcerating them in Israeli military prisons.
He committed no crime, was given a military trial by three military judges, with no legal training, in a military court, charged with organizing the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Zeevi on October 17, 2001, and was convicted by "an illegitimate manifestation of an illegitimate system...."
In June 2002, Amnesty International called for his immediate release after a Palestinian court ordered it, Fatah's cabinet overriding the decision the same day, abiding by a US-brokered deal ending Israel's 34-day siege on PA Chairman Yasser Arafet's Ramallah headquarters on May 1.
After Israel abducted him, a Sa'adat wrote:
"The Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN) provide a cover for occupation. What happened at Jericho Prison has made the British and US governments an integral part of the conflict and forever buried any illusions (of) their neutrality" - referring to American and UK guards abandoning their posts, letting Israeli forces storm the prison, abduct Sa'adat and others, kill two detainees, and injure 23 more.
On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, Israel's harshest political punishment, illegal under international law. According to a PFLP statement, he was "sentenced to 30 years in Israeli jails for political reasons and not for any other crime," Sa'adat refusing to recognize the court's legitimacy, calling himself "a prisoner for freedom."
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