Palestinian Mourners Protest Death of Police Torture Victim

Palestinians burned tires, threw stones and trashed a gas station Thursday to protest the death of a man who was severely beaten and burned by Palestinian interrogators.

Thousands of people escorted the body of Mahmoud Jemayel, 26, wrapped in a white shroud, to the city cemetery. As the procession snaked through the city, women hurled bottles and epithets at police officers watching from the sidelines.

Jemayel’s family rejected offers by Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority to soothe tempers by burying Jemayel in a military ceremony, including a flag-draped coffin and an honor guard.

Three police interrogators have been arrested for torturing Jemayel, the eighth detainee to die as a result of mistreatment by Arafat’s security forces since the start of self-rule in 1994. Jemayel died Wednesday in a Jerusalem hospital.

Many in the crowd accused the city’s mayor of ordering the death to settle a personal score. Protesters using crowbars and stones demolished pumps at a gas station belonging to the mayor, who denied involvement in the death.