MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to Palestinian legislation, the PLC is to hold a session if one-fourth of its members demands it. Khuraishah said that this time at least 16 members of the Fatah movement and all Hamas lawmakers requested to hold an emergency session.
"The session will address the issue of the latest decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to remove the immunity of five of the lawmakers in his Fatah movement… We will issue a resolution regarding the illegality and unconstitutionality of the move," Hassan Khuraishah, second PLC vice-president, told the Gulf News media outlet on Tuesday.
Under the Palestinian legislation lawmakers are granted diplomatic immunity from arrest and prosecution. However, the ruling of the Palestinian Constitutional Court from November 2016 gave the president undisputed power to waive the immunity of lawmakers. Earlier in December Abbas decided to remove the immunity of five members of the parliament, who were later charged with theft of public funds, arms trading and defamation.
The Palestinian parliament has not any sessions for a decade since 2006 when the Islamist movement of Hamas won the parliamentary elections.
