Abbas' potential successor has been accused of sexual harassment, raping a minor and bullying the victims' families

From Reuters:

Two potential successors to 86-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were named on Monday to top posts in the Palestine Liberation Organization at a meeting boycotted by his Islamist rivals.

Official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the PLO's 141-member Central Council appointed Hussein Al-Sheikh, 61, an Abbas confidant who serves as key liaison with Israel and the United States, to the PLO's Executive Committee.

He is likely to replace the late Saeb Erekat as the committee's secretary-general.

Al Sheikh is widely known in Palestinian circles as a serial sexual harasser and molester.

The Palestinian Kawther site says:

Mr. Hussein Al-Sheikh is the so-called “Minister of Civil Affairs” of the Palestinian Authority, a senior Fatah member and the man charged with keeping the coordination between the colonial israeli military administration in Beit Il and the PA. Using his lucky position, Mr. Al-Sheikh commits crimes of sexual molestation and abuse against women, often employees of the PNA.

Mr. Al-Sheikh could until now count on complete impunity for his crimes against women, as he perpetrates them with knowledge of “President” Mahmoud Abbas, who in turn is fully supported and financed by the USA, the EU and other western countries.

As has already happened in the past, it became known that Mr. Al-Sheikh again used the prerogatives of his position to sexually harass a woman. It is not the first time that such a thing happens, and it is not the first time that the PA keeps silence over criminal complaints lodged against him.

Mr. Al-Sheikh is considered by president Abbas as the most important minister due to his work with Israel, which involves issuing VIP Cards and travel permits of Abbas, PA elements, students, workers, sick people, marrying couples, burial permissions etc, so a few rapes here and a few abuses against women there are of no consequence.  

The first time that his pastime became known to a wider audience was when minister Al-Sheikh molested the wife of a political prisoner who continues behind bars Israeli jails.

The second time around, he raped a girl in Tel Aviv. This victim was a friend of his daughter and the good minister convinced her family to join him in a picnic in Tal Aviv, a trip which lecherous Al-Sheikh then used to rape the girl.

The third time his lewd pastime became known, some weeks ago in September 2012, “Minister” Al-Sheikh tried to molest one of his female employees at the ministry. The woman is married to Ahmad Abu Al-Am, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Brigades and a former Israeli political prisoner and a friend of Al-Sheikh.

The site mentions reports of other rapes and implies that Al Sheikh would trade highly sought travel permits, which he was in charge of, for sexual favors. 

Haaretz verified the third incident and mentioned the others obliquely. It also detailed how Al Sheikh's family and PA security forces threatened the victim's family.

Al Sheikh remains one of Abbas' favored advisors and is the main liaison with Israel. 

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