Safe mechanism not behind blast at Palestine’s embassy in Prague
Prague, March 31 (ČTK) — The blast at the Palestinian embassy in Prague, which killed Palestinian ambassador Jamal al Jamal on Jan. 1, was not caused by the safe’s improvised explosive device, it ensues from the investigation that Prague police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulová released on their website today.
Expert opinions clearly show that no special security mechanism of the safe was behind the blast, she added.
“This conclusion was also drawn from a test carried out within the investigation. It has proved that the explosion did not occur inside the safe,” she said.
At the beginning of the inquiry, police ruled out a terrorist act or other foul play.
Now detectives have rejected another version of the incident.
However, genetic, chemical and bomb-disposal expert opinions have not been completed yet.
The investigators will have further results in a few weeks, Zoulová said.
Jamal succumbed to the injuries he suffered in the explosion, allegedly while manipulating the embassy’s safe, in his diplomatic flat in the Prague-Suchdol neighborhood where the safe was moved shortly before Jan. 1.
Czech police are investigating the incident as killing caused by negligence.
But shortly after the tragedy, Jamal’s daughter Rana said she was convinced that her father had been murdered.
Moreover, Czech police look into a suspicion of illegal arms possession as they have found 12 unregistered firearms from the 1980s in the embassy building.
The weapons were gifts from representatives of the then communist Czechoslovakia, Palestinians said in a statement sent to the Prague police.
Detectives launched a ballistic examination of the firearms to rule out that a crime had been committed with them in the Czech Republic.
