Police are appealing for fresh information regarding the murder of Naji Salim Hussain al-Ali, some 30 years after the Palestinian cartoonist was assassinated in London. Naji al-Ali received frequent death threats over his provocative cartoons which satirised Arab and Israeli politics and were known to raise the ire of both sides of the conflict. The artist was shot outside the London offices of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas on 22 July 1987.
The Metropolitan Police arrested Ismail Sowan, a 28-year-old Jerusalem-born Palestinian researcher at Hull University, who it transpired worked for both the PLO and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Sowan claimed to have infiltrated an Arab terror cell who he says carried out the hit. However, no further arrests were ever made.
Police say that Naji al-Ali’s assailant was aged approximately twenty-five and of middle eastern appearance, with thick, collar-length black hair that was wavy at the back. Another man, also middle eastern, but in his fifties, was seen near the scene.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which is reviewing the case, noted, ‘A lot can change in 30 years. Allegiances shift and people who were not willing to speak at the time of the murder may now be prepared to come forward with crucial information.’
29 August 2017
