HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------http://www.dailystar.com.lb/25_01_02/art4.htm
Warlord had ‘revelations to make in court’
Trial in Belgium proceeds, key witness dead
Nicholas Blanford
Daily Star staff
The killing of Elie Hobeika has deprived lawyers seeking the prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of a potential key witness to events surrounding the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camp in 1982.
In Belgium, Chibli Mallat, one of the lawyers representing survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, said that Hobeika’s death was unhelpful, but should not prevent the case against Sharon proceeding.
“From the point of view of the evidence he had promised to provide, the loss of his testimony is not going to be helpful,” he told The Daily Star. While he would not be drawn on the perpetrator of the deadly bombing, Mallat said that Hobeika’s death suited Sharon.
“Clearly his disappearance coincides with a very harsh campaign by the Israeli prime minister to have the case dismissed,” he said. The plaintiffs’ legal team was swift to link Hobeika’s death to the lawsuit against Sharon.
“The elimination of a key protagonist, who had offered to assist with the inquiry, appears as an evident attempt to undermine the case, and reinforces the international campaign which seeks to prevent any examination before a neutral forum of a crime against humanity which has remained unpunished,” a statement from the lawyers said.
Hobeika had said that he would testify to the Brussels court if, as looks likely, the trial against Sharon proceeds.
The Brussels court of appeals declared Wednesday that it would rule on whether the case was admissible under Belgian law on March 6.
The lawsuit against Sharon was filed last June under a 1993 Belgium law that permits the
trial of foreigners for crimes against humanity regardless of where they occurred.
Sharon was Israeli defense minister in 1982 and the architect of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June that year. The 1983 Kahan Commission, an Israeli inquiry into the massacre, concluded that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for the slaughter, in which at least 1,000 Palestinians perished.
Hobeika had said that he was willing to travel to Belgium and testify in court against the Israeli prime minister if asked.
Last July, Hobeika broke his silence over the Sabra and Shatila massacre to plead innocence on any involvement, claiming to have documents and tapes that proved he was not in the vicinity of the camps at the time.
In a secret meeting in Beirut with two visiting Belgian senators Tuesday, Hobeika reportedly informed them that he feared for his life. One of the senators, Josy Dubie, said in Brussels Thursday that when he asked Hobeika if he felt threatened, he replied: “I feel threatened. I have revelations to make.”
“I then asked why he did not make these revelations now,” the senator said, “and he replied to me: ‘I am saving them for the trial’.” Several published accounts of the circumstances of the massacre place Hobeika at the Israeli Army command post in a six-storey building overlooking Shatila during the slaughter.
An Israeli officer testified to the Kahan Commission that a Lebanese militiamen had asked Hobeika over the radio what he should do with 50 Palestinian women and children that had been rounded up in the camp.
Hobeika’s reply was: “This is the last time you’re going to ask me a question like that; you know exactly what to do.”
According to the Kahan Commission report, this was followed by “raucous laughter,” leaving no doubt in the mind of the Israeli witness that the prisoners were to be executed.
--------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST
==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
