Palestinian professor shot dead in Malaysia

Fadi Mohammed al Batsh, 35, was killed in Kuala Lumpur. His family blamed Israeli spy agency Mossad for the assassination.

A picture taken on April 21, 2018 shows men holding up a poster portrait of 35-year-old Palestinian professor and Hamas member Fadi Mohammad al Batsh who was killed early in the day in Malaysia outside his family's house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza strip.
AFP

A picture taken on April 21, 2018 shows men holding up a poster portrait of 35-year-old Palestinian professor and Hamas member Fadi Mohammad al Batsh who was killed early in the day in Malaysia outside his family's house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza strip.

A Palestinian family on Saturday accused Israel’s spy agency Mossad of killing a Palestinian lecturer in Malaysia.

Fadi Mohammed al Batsh, 35, was shot dead by two gunmen on a high-powered motorcade near his home in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Malaysian police said.

"The suspect fired 10 shots, four of which hit the lecturer in the head and body. He died on the spot,” the official Bernama news agency quoted Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim as saying.

Mazlan said a recording of a closed-circuit television camera near the scene showed the two assailants waited for about 20 minutes for the Palestinian lecturer.

"We believe the lecturer was their target because two other individuals walked by the place earlier unharmed,” he said.

TRT World's Angela Murphy reports.

The lecturer’s family, meanwhile, said Mossad was behind his assassination without providing evidence.

“We accuse Mossad of standing behind the energy researcher’s assassination,” the Batsh family in the Gaza Strip said in a statement.

The family called on the Malaysian police to launch an investigation into the killing.

There has been no comment from Israeli authorities on the accusations.

Batsh specialised in electrical and electronic engineering and worked at a Malaysian university.

He had lived there with his family for the past eight years and was an imam at a local mosque.

He received his PhD degree from the University of Malaya in 2015 and was a senior lecturer at the British Malaysian Institute.

His official biography said his research interests included power converters, power quality and renewable energy.

However, Israeli media reported that he was also deeply involved in the Hamas drone development project.

Hamas member

Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, confirmed that the lecturer was a group member.

“The martyr was distinguished by his excellence and scientific creativity,” Hamas said in a statement.

It, however, did not accuse any side of killing Batsh.

In late 2016, Palestinian drone expert Mohamed al Zawari, was shot dead in Tunisia, with Hamas accusing Israel of killing him.

Israel is widely believed to have killed numerous Palestinian resistance activists in the past, many of them overseas.

In 1997, Mossad agents tried – and failed – to kill Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal in Jordan by spraying poison into his ear.

Mossad is also believed to have been behind the assassination in 2010 of top Hamas commander Mahmud al Mabhuh in a Dubai hotel.

Israel has never confirmed or denied its involvement in Mabhuh’s murder. 

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