Autopsy Shows Sharar Murdered

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ROME (AP) — Medical examiners said Monday their autopsy showed a top Palestinian Liberation Organization official found dead after an explosion could have been murdered before the blast. The official, Majed Abu Sharar, was found dead in his Rome hotel room early Friday after the blast. Sharar was spokesman for the unified information center for PLO guerrilla factions.

Police sources had said that he might have blown himself up while working on an explosive device. But a report by the state-run Institute for Legal Medicine said Sharar’s body, which was completely burned, had large wounds in the back, indicating that the bomb exploded while he was lying on a bed.

It also said the medical examiners found evidence suggesting that Sharar could have been dead or at least unconscious when the bomb went off. They said metal fragments, which were not part of the bomb, were found in Sharar’s body. They also said his hands and toes were curled up as if his body did not react to the explosion.

The Italia news agency reported that some police investigators believe the PLO official was killed with a pistol before being put on the bed. Sharar’s body was flown to Beirut where a funeral was scheduled for Tuesday. At least seven PLO officials have been killed in Europe since the early 1970s, one other this year.

In June, Naim Khader, the PLO’s representative in Brussels, was killed by a lone gunman as he walked to his office. In August, Mohammed Daoud Odeh, also known as Abu Daoud, was shot in Warsaw but survived his wounds. The PLO has blamed the Israelis for the assassinations.

How this transcription was made

Masthead not readable on the scan. The label on the slide read: [no masthead on clipping] — Single scan, one cut column; read in three crops at 5x. — DISAGREEMENT WITH MARIA'S LABEL ORDER. No masthead or date line on this cut. The lede says “Medical examiners said Monday” and the last paragraph says the funeral “was scheduled for Tuesday.” Abu Sharar was killed early Friday 9 October 1981; the Monday after is 12 October, which makes this a Tuesday 13 October paper. That is the date on Maria's SECOND label (Florence Morning News Oct 13 1981), not her first. Her third label (Fort Worth Star-Telegram Oct 10 1981) is confirmed by a printed date line on image 3, so the labels are not simply shifted — labels 1 and 2 appear to be crossed against images 1 and 2. I have dated this record from the page and left the paper unattributed. Do not assign a paper to this clipping without a masthead.

Cite this clipping

"Autopsy Shows Sharar Murdered," (newspaper unidentified), 13 October 1981. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1981-033. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1981-033