The Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee on Saturday night elected Fatah's Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh as deputy to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Considered close to Abbas, Hussein Shehada Mohammed al-Sheikh will turn 65 in December.
Al-Sheikh served a prison sentence in Israel between 1978-1988.
In December 2022, recordings of Al-Sheikh were released by a news website run by Hamas, the bitter rival of Abbas' Fatah party. The exact context of the conversations also wasn't clear, but Al-Sheikh is repeatedly heard complaining about Abbas and denigrating other potential contenders for the PA chairmanship.
AP noted that throughout the recording Al-Sheikh, refers to Abbas with a series of profanities.
In another section of the more than 3-minute audio, al-Sheikh says Abbas "is a partner in the chaos and has an interest for it to remain."
In June 2023, al-Sheikh called on Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to expedite examining the files referred to the court regarding Israel's alleged crimes against Palestinian Arabs.