Belgium's highest court throws out case against Sharon

[g420]

Belgium's highest court throws out case against Sharon

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Belgium's highest court on

Wednesday threw out a war crimes complaint against

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and a case against

former U.S. President George Bush and Secretary of

State Colin Powell.

The ruling by the Cour de

Cassation is expected to soothe

diplomatic relations with the

United States and Israel, which

had hit their lowest points in

decades because of the court

complaints.

A statement released by the

Israeli embassy in Brussels

said that "the ruling will enable us to

rehabilitate the relations between the two

nations."

The cases were based on a Belgian universal

jurisdiction law that allowed for genocide and

war crimes complaints against foreign leaders,

filed by foreigners about events which happened

abroad. The law was drastically amended over

the summer to avoid politically motivated

complaints.

A group of Palestinians lodged the complaint

against Sharon, relating to a 1982 massacre in

Lebanon. Early this year, the Israeli

government temporarily withdrew its ambassador

from Brussels.

The complaints against Bush, father of the

current U.S. president, Powell and U.S. Vice

President Dick Cheney were filed on behalf of

seven Iraq victims of the 1991 Gulf War.

Annoyed by the spate of such cases against

Americans, Washington had threatened the NATO

alliance would have to move out of the Belgian

capital because of the law.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said

Wednesday it was "a fact that as long as

complaints based on the universal jurisdiction

law were not thrown out, we cannot resume [high

level] official contacts with the United

States."

On Tuesday, a lower Belgian court upheld an

earlier decision to drop a war crimes complaint

against U.S. Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy

Franks, rejecting an appeal by a lawyer

representing 17 Iraqi and two Jordanian

civilians.

Under intense diplomatic pressure, the

government brought in a law that allows cases

to be brought only if the victim or suspect is

a Belgian citizen or long-term resident at the

time of the alleged crime. It also guarantees

diplomatic immunity for world leaders and other

government officials visiting Belgium.

The biggest change is the dropping of the

"universal jurisdiction" in the 1993 law, which

had resulted in politically embarrassing

complaints against U.S. officials, British

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sharon, among

others.

The new law brings it in line with those in the

rest of western Europe.

The case against Sharon centered on a massacre

in a Lebanese refugee camp two decades ago.

Sharon was defense minister in 1982 when

hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra

and Chatila refugee camps south of Beirut were

slaughtered by a Lebanese Christian militia

allied with the Israelis. The Israeli forces

had entered Lebanon several months earlier.

An Israeli inquiry found Sharon indirectly

responsible and forced him to resign as defense

minister in 1983.

Belgian prosecutors opened an inquiry in July

2001 following a complaint filed by 23

survivors of the massacres.

In March, seven Iraqi victims of the 1991 Gulf

War lodged an official war crimes complaint

against former U.S. President Bush, Powell and

Cheney.

The issue centers on the February 13, 1991,

bombing of the al-Amiriya shelter in Baghdad,

which killed 403 people, including 52 children

and 261 women. U.S. aircraft attacked the

shelter believing it was a command center.

[tribal]

it was an absurd and preposterous case to begin with. it was filled with vicious slander and monstrous double standards of any nation. if sharon can go on trial for indirectly being responsible for Sabra/Shatila massacres by a christian phalangist group, then why is arafat not on trial for being directly responsible for killings of Israeli olympic athletes, numerous hijackings and uncountable suicide bombers, for whose detonation belts he paid out of the PA bank accounts, all proven as a fact. if thats not hypocrisy, arrogance, and anti-semitism, i dont know what is. belgium should stick to making waffles and beer.