Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

War Crimes Suit Against Ariel Sharon

http://palestinechronicle.com | 17.05.2002 20:35

The following is the full Statement by Lawyers for the Survivors of Sabra and Shatila following the Final Pre-Trial Hearing on the Admissibility of the Case Lodged against Sharon and others for Trial in Belgium under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction for War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Genocide.

War Crimes Suit Against Ariel Sharon
War Crimes Suit Against Ariel Sharon


BRUSSELS: Following a reopening of debate about the admissibility of this case for trial, made at our request and at the request of the Attorney-General in the wake of the International Court of Justice's 14 February decision in the Congo v. Belgium case, we had an extensive session of hearings this morning at the Court of Appeals in Brussels.

We are satisfied with a number of developments, especially after widely announced statements that these proceedings had been frustrated by the Congo v. Belgium decisions. The Attorney-General confirmed this morning his support for our position on the full jurisdiction of the Belgian courts under the Belgian 1993 Statute Law and rejected the interpretation of other judges in the Congo v. Belgium (Yerodia) case in Brussels.

On immunity, the Attorney-General, while recognising personal and temporal immunity for Mr. Sharon as a sitting prime minister, confirmed the need for the investigation to proceed in this case.

On our part, we insisted that immunities cannot be recognised for the crime of genocide, since the 1948 Genocide Convention expressly rules out such immunities. This issue was not raised in the Congo v.Belgium case, and therefore immunity could not be deemed relevant for the case lodged against Sharon and others in the matter of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Secondly, we have insisted on the need to restrict immunity to the simple issuance and delivery of an arrest warrant, in accordance with the actual decision of the International Court of Justice in the Congo v. Belgium case. [See the 15 February press communiqué on www.indictsharon.net for more details.]

Another positive development has been the strong and immediate public reaction in various countries in opposition to recent attempts to restrict the 1993 Statute Law too narrowly. We are pleased with the joint initiative of victims of crimes committed in Rwanda, Guatemala, and Chad, with whom we met in Brussels yesterday and who have mobilised NGOs throughout the world in support of an effective protection of the Belgium's Universal Jurisdiction law.

We particularly welcome the thorough study issued by Amnesty International yesterday, entitled "Belgian court has jurisdiction in the Sharon case to investigate Sabra and Shatila killings." We formally deposited this study at the court hearing this morning.

Mrs. Samiha Hijazi, one of the 28 original plaintiffs on whose behalf we lodged the complaint on 18 June 2001, came from Sabra and Shatila to attend the hearing in Brussels. Mrs. Samiha Hijazi lost her 10- year-old son and her newlywed 17-year old daughter in the massacre.

We are confident that the decision of the court, announced for 26 June 2002, will finally open the road to justice to the victims of one of the greatest unpunished crimes of the 20th century.

Luc Walleyn
Michaël Verhaeghe
Chibli Mallat

For more information and updates about this war crimes suit against Ariel Sharon see: www.indictsharon.net

http://palestinechronicle.com
- Homepage: http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20020517025543463

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech