Observers say Mohammed Dahlan could be planning to use country as base to launch leadership challenge against Palestinian Authority leader

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Serbia’s government has quietly granted citizenship to Mohammed Dahlan, a key rival of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and adviser to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

Dahlan, his family and five key political supporters were all granted citizenship between February 2013 and June 2014, according to documents from the state’s official gazette analysed by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).

The government is able to grant citizenship during closed cabinet sessions to foreigners deemed to have served “state interests” without offering any detailed public explanation.

Dahlan is credited with facilitating Abu Dhabi’s promised investment of billions of euros in Serbia. However, the government in Belgrade has refused to explain whether this is the reason for granting citizenship to him and 11 other Palestinians in the past two years.

Seasoned Middle East observers have suggested that Dahlan could be planning to use Serbia as a base to launch his leadership challenge against Abbas, the current Palestinian Authority (PA) leader.

Dahlan, a former PA security chief, was seen by many as Yasser Arafat’s likely successor but lost out to Abbas. The latter accused him of corruption and he was kicked out of the political party Fatah in 2011.

The PA launched a defamation action against Dahlan, then living in exile in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after he criticised Abbas’s leadership and PA security forces in the West Bank. He was given a two-year jail term in March 2014 following his conviction in absentia.

Thousands of Dahlan’s supporters took to the streets of Gaza in December to protest at the opening of another court case against him, this time on charges of corruption.

Dahlan has publicly denied the accusations but refused to respond to questions sent to him by BIRN. His backers dismiss the court cases as nothing more than politically motivated show trials, while Abbas and the PA claim to have produced extensive reports on his alleged wrongdoing.

A spokesman for Abbas said: “According to all national and international rules, when somebody wants to take a passport from another country, they [the government] should check to make sure that they have a clean file and clean history and not just give it. They have not asked the Palestinian side about their history or whether they are criminals or not.

“We will send a letter to the Serbian president and prime minister to stop that.”

BIRN reveals that Dahlan is renting a luxurious villa in an exclusive Belgrade neighbourhood favoured by diplomats. Until recently the home of former Serbian president Boris Tadić, the villa’s security was beefed up before Dahlan’s arrival in Belgrade.

The Serbian government has refused to respond to requests from BIRN for an explanation of why it has granted citizenship to Dahlan, his family and supporters.

However, Dusan Simeonovic, former ambassador to Egypt and Palestine, told BIRN the move was “clearly a sign of gratitude for Dahlan’s role in implementing investments from the UAE”.

Bypassing the standard naturalisation process, the government can grant citizenship to an individual if it is deemed that doing so is in Serbia’s national interest, according to the country’s citizenship law.

Under this system, a minister puts forward a name, which is then voted on in a closed government session. The decision is signed off by the prime minister or his deputy and published in the official gazette.

This process has attracted controversy on a number of occasions, including last year when Sergey Kurchenko, a Ukrainian businessmen facing EU sanctions, was also made a Serbian national following a government decision. The Serbian interior minister declined to confirm earlier media reports that Kurchenko’s citizenship had been revoked after the outcry.

This system has been used 52 times in the past five years, most often to grant passports to musicians and sportsmen and women.

Many EU countries have schemes in place to naturalise top sportsmen and provide citizenship or permanent residency to major foreign investors. These, however, are usually subject to a number of strict criteria – such as not being under criminal investigation – and handled by officials rather than politicians.

Serbia’s position differs in that the government can approve citizenship as long as it serves the “state interest”, irrespective of any other conditions.

Dahlan was instrumental in forging new diplomatic and economic ties between Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi and the Serbian government. He was decorated by President Tomislav Nikolić with the Medal of the Serbian Flag in April 2013 for his role in “the development and strengthening of peaceful cooperation and friendly relations between Serbia and the United Arab Emirates”.

The president’s office refused to elaborate on this when questioned by BIRN last week, adding only that Dahlan was “a close associate of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed who had contributed to investments from the UAE”.

Serbia opened an embassy in Abu Dhabi in August 2013. This blossoming relationship played a key role in finalising a series of intergovernmental deals signed between Serbia and Abu Dhabi, promising billions of euros of investment through companies connected to the ruling family.

But the deals have proved controversial.

Etihad Airways bought 49% of shares in the airline JAT in 2013, although concerns have been raised about whether the Serbian taxpayer received value for money from the sale of almost half of the state-owned firm.

Al Dahra Agriculture was due to invest €150m through state-owned farms, according to a published contract signed with the Serbian government. But, after the deal sparked protests, the Abu Dhabi firm decided to buy a stake in a firm owned by Serbian tycoon Vojin Lazarević instead.

Other huge deals related to agriculture, arms, electronics and ports have been signed with firms linked to the royal family, according to statements by the Serbian government. A €2.8bn real estate project called Belgrade Water, a joint venture between the Serbian government and a Dubai-based firm, has also been announced.

Despite the impressive proposals, little concrete investment has been visible on the ground. Officials from the UAE embassy in Belgrade insist that delays with projects of this scale are normal and that investments will follow.

This article was written by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network www.balkaninsight.com as part of a project funded by Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). The content does not reflect the views and opinions of the ADC.