PRAGUE - The explosion at the Palestinian embassy in Prague that killed Palestinian ambassador Jamal al Jamal on January 1 this year was not caused by an explosive security device attached to the embassy's safe, which was the initial line of police investigation.
“This conclusion was reached also by an experiment that showed that the explosion had not taken place inside the safe,” said Prague police spokeswoman Andra Zoulova. The spokeswoman confirmed to the Pravo newspaper that the ambassador had held the explosive in his hands at the moment of the explosion.
Czech police have conducted forensic tests in the past days to determine the power of the explosion that killed Jamal. Zoulova said that it is possible that the blast was caused by careless manipulation with the explosive. DNA, chemical, and other tests have not been concluded yet. The results will be available in a matter of weeks, said the spokeswoman.
The Pravo daily wrote that it is possible that in spite of the explosive's power, the ambassador meant to use it to protect the safe. The investigators have allegedly even found wires to install the bomb at the site. A second explosive device was found inside a book in the same room, wrote the newspaper.
Shorty after the January explosion, police ruled out the possibility of terrorism or other kind of deliberate attack.
During the initial search of the embassy compound in January, police also found 12 firearms from the 1980s. The Palestinian side says that the weapons were a gift from Czechoslovak Socialist Republic officials.
