Prague: A blast that killed the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic this week "was not an accident," despite an official theory to the contrary, the envoy`s daughter said on Saturday.
"What is certain is that it was not an accident," Rana al-Jamal, who lives in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, told the Czech newspaper Dnes in an interview.
Her father, Jamal al-Jamal, the 56-year-old ambassador to Prague since October, was fatally wounded on New Year`s day by an explosion in the Palestinian diplomatic mission`s premises.
Czech police have excluded an assassination, instead advancing the theory that the blast was caused by an anti-theft device inside a safe Jamal was manipulating. They also said unregistered weapons were found inside the mission in violation of diplomatic treaties.
Palestinian officials have given contradictory accounts.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki has described the death as an "accident" caused by an old safe booby-trapped to explode if opened the wrong way. But a spokesman for the Palestinian embassy said the safe in question was new, often used, and contained "no built-in anti-theft system".
The ambassador`s daughter said she was convinced the explosives were put inside the safe when the diplomatic mission was recently moved from a different address in the Czech capital.
"A political or other motive" could be behind her father`s death, she said, without elaborating. "I don`t know and I won`t mention anyone."