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Amnesty International news release
Amnesty
International urges investigation of Ariel Sharon
3 October 2001
AI Index : MDE 15/089/2001
A court in Brussels will today (3 October 2001) begin to consider
arguments about whether Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may
be investigated in Belgium for alleged war crimes committed in Lebanon
in 1982 while he was Israel's Minister of Defence.
"Amnesty International welcomes actions taken in accordance with
international law to combat impunity," said the organization. "We
support the judicial investigation into Ariel Sharon's responsibility
with regard to the Sabra and Shatila massacre."
The complaint against Sharon was first lodged with the Belgian Public
Prosecutor's Office in June 2001. Ariel Sharon was Minister of Defence,
with overall responsibility for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF),
at the time of the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut. The IDF allowed the Lebanese
Phalange militia to enter the camps where the killing of hundreds,
mostly Palestinian refugees, continued for at least 30 hours. The
complainants, a group of 23 Lebanese and Palestinians, had filed
the case under Belgian legislation enacted in 1993 and 1999 which
allows Belgian courts to prosecute foreigners for certain offences
committed abroad, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity. However, the resulting investigation was suspended by
the investigating magistrate in early September 2001 until doubts
about the legal validity of the procedure were resolved.
Amnesty International calls on states to ensure prompt, thorough
and independent investigations wherever allegations of crimes under
international law are made. If such an investigation shows there
is enough evidence for a prosecution, then, in accordance with international
law which allows the national courts of any state to try people
accused of such crimes, regardless of the nationality of the alleged
perpetrators or victims and regardless of where the crimes were
committed, Amnesty International calls on states to bring the accused
to trial or extradite them to another country for trial, provided
certain safeguards are met. No one may be extradited to a country
which cannot assure that any trial on such charges meets international
standards for fairness and does not result in the imposition of
the death penalty or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
The lawyer representing Israel argued that Belgium lacks the legal
authority to try Ariel Sharon on charges relating to the 1982 massacre.
Among her arguments the lawyer stated that Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon has immunity as a head of government; the case had already
been considered in Israel by the Kahan Commission of Inquiry, which
was a judicial commission; the 1993 law cannot be used retroactively;
and the case has no connection with Belgium. A Brussels public prosecutor
rejected the defence arguments and said that the case should go
ahead. The court hearing due to start on 3 October will rule on
the legality of the proceedings against Ariel Sharon in Belgium,
not on the content of the case against him. Amnesty International
has welcomed Belgium's universal jurisdiction laws and the 27 August
2001 statements attributed to Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
voicing support for the legislation and suggesting that it be extended
to the entire European Union.
The first case involving the exercise of universal jurisdiction
to come to trial in Belgium resulted in the conviction in June 2001
of four Rwandan nationals for war crimes committed in 1994. Amnesty
International welcomed this judgement as a significant step forward
in the use of universal jurisdiction, an essential tool in the struggle
against impunity.
A number of criminal complaints have been lodged with the Belgian
courts against leaders and prominent members of past and present
governments. In addition to Ariel Sharon, these have included: former
Chilean President General Augusto Pinochet; former Speaker of Parliament
and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hojjatoleslam Ali
Akbar Rafsanjani; former Moroccan Minister of Interior Driss Basri;
former Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi and several other
government ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; President
Paul Kagame of Rwanda; former President Hissene Habre of Chad; and
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.
Background
The principle of universal jurisdiction permits the national courts
of any state to try people accused of crimes under international
law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
as well as torture, extrajudicial executions and "disappearances,"
regardless of the nationality of the alleged perpetrators or victims
and regardless of where the crimes were committed.
In 1983 the official Israeli Commission of Inquiry into the Events
at the Refugee Camps in Beirut concluded that Minister of Defence
Ariel Sharon had "disregarded the danger of acts of vengeance and
bloodshed by Phalangists... failed to take this danger into account
when he decided to have the Phalangists enter the camps...[and had
not ordered] appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the
danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists' entry into
the camps." The commission recommended that "the Minister of Defence
draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects
revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties
of his office." Ariel Sharon resigned from his position as Minister
of Defence following publication of the Commission's report in 1983.
In February 2001 Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel;
he took office in March.
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