Belgian Court To Decide On Prosecuting Israeli Leader By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief November 21, 2001

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A Belgian court is set to decide next week whether it has the legal standing to prosecute Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 1982, when he was defense minister.

Sharon's lawyer will try to convince the court that the entire case against his client is illegal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Immanuel Nachshon said on Tuesday.

Later this week, Sharon and his lawyer are expected to receive a summons to appear before the court, which will decide whether or not to go ahead with the proceedings.

On November 28, the court is set to decide whether or not it has jurisdiction to deal with proceedings against Sharon, said Ambassador Alan Baker, legal advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

"We think our case is very strong. We think the Belgians can't open proceedings," Baker said.

In July, a Belgian judge decided to open an investigation into 23 complaints filed by Palestinians, who accuse Sharon being responsible for the massacre of some 800 Palestinians in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla.

Sharon was overseeing Israeli troops that had invaded Lebanon to rout the PLO, which was using the country as a launching pad for international terrorism. Lebanese Israeli-allied militias, under local leadership but Sharon's overall command, carried out the massacres after entering the camps to search for PLO gunmen believed to be hiding there.

Under a 1993 law, anyone from anywhere in the world can file a complaint for crimes against humanity in the Belgian courts.

Earlier in the week, Israel cried foul when Belgian television station RTBF aired a BBC program about Sharon's role in the Sabra and Shatilla massacres.

The program, which originally aired in June, was broadcast just two days before a senior-level European Union delegation headed by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was due in Israel and less than two weeks before the critical hearing was due to be held in Belgium.

There is certainly a "determined effort to influence the court" including the airing of the BBC program, said Baker. "It's a court. We hope, assume that it will not be influenced by the current political climate [in Belgium]."

Although the case against Sharon personally, the state is involved, said Baker."This is an attack on the State of Israel."

Neither the Belgian Embassy in Tel Aviv nor the Foreign Ministry in Brussels wanted to comment on the case on Tuesday.

The Belgian law itself is under review. Among the modifications being suggested is one, which would prevent filing a complaint against any serving government minister or head of state while they are in office.

The government wants to alter the legislation in a way in which it will not be able to "impede" the country's diplomatic efforts, one source in Belgium said.

Honest Broker?

The Belgian government, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has tried to distance itself from the court investigation. But the investigation has cast a pall over Israeli-EU relations at a time when the EU is trying to become more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"[It is] creating a shadow over bi-lateral relations between Belgium and Israel," Baker said. "[It is] also making Belgium's job [as head of] the EU in the last six months all the more difficult."

After his meeting with Sharon, Verhofstadt insisted that the EU could be an "honest broker" in the peace process.

Israel has often accused the EU of being pro-Palestinian and has resisted attempts by the EU to become more involved in the peace process.

"I know that some people believe that the EU is close to the Palestinian Authority," Verhofstadt said. "I can tell you that is not the case, that is not true. We are neutral."

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

Answers

On the other hand. . .

Jerusalem Post

Israelis initiate legal action against Arafat in Belgium By Dan Izenberg

JERUSALEM (November 22) - A Jerusalem lawyer representing 30 terror victims and the Terror Victims Association said yesterday he does not have much faith in Belgian justice, but he and his clients must at least try to put Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on trial there for war crimes.

Yesterday, terror victims who are charging Arafat with responsibility for the deaths of their loved ones gave the lawyer, Ya'acov Rubin, and French attorney Gilles William Goldnadel, powers of attorney to represent them before the criminal court of Brussels.

Belgian law allows for its court to try suspected war criminals from all over the world. Survivors of the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside Beirut have already initiated legal action in Belgium against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who served as defense minister during the Lebanese War.

"We are demanding that the truth [about Arafat] come to light," Rubin told a group of terror victims who had come to sign their powers of attorney. "I am doubtful whether Belgium, its system of justice and its judicial echelon will, in fact, bring the truth to light. But we must try, in spite of our reservations regarding Belgium and its attitude to Israel."

The Israeli legal team, which also includes Yehudit Shechor, who studied law after her son Uri and his friend Ohad Bachrach were killed in Wadi Kelt in 1995, will submit their complaint in Brussels' Palace of Justice on November 27. The lawyers will be accompanied by an Israeli delegation including relatives of terror victims or survivors of terror attacks.

Rubin, who is representing the victims pro bono, said that all of the terrorist attacks specified in the complaint can be traced directly to Arafat. He also denied that the terror victims' complaint was being lodged in retaliation for the complaint against Sharon, saying that the research into the case against Arafat started long before the action against Sharon.

According to Rubin, the complaint against Arafat will be considered by a Belgian judge-investigator. If he is convinced that there is prima facie evidence supporting the complaint, he will order the Belgian state prosecution to prepare an indictment.

The World Committee for Justice and Peace also plan to file suits in the Belgian courts in the near future on behalf of at least 20 Israeli victims of Arab terror, said Joel Leyden, the vice president and spokesman of the WCJP.

(Margot Dudkevitch contributed to this report.)

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001