-Caveat Lector-
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2002 16:05:09 +0100
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: Israel/Belgium: Dismay at Sharon case decision
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
26 June 2002
MDE 15/101/2002
Amnesty International is extremely dismayed at the decision by
the Court of Appeal of Brussels that declared a complaint
concerning the "Sharon" case inadmissible. The Court's decision
was based on its analysis of Belgian law which concluded that no
investigation can be opened in Belgium for war crimes, crimes
against humanity or genocide unless the suspect is found in the
country.
The complaint before the Belgian court concerned the
killings of at least 900 Palestinian men, women and children in
the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in the suburbs of Beirut,
Lebanon in September 1982.
"This restrictive interpretation of Belgian national is
inconsistent with international law," said Amnesty International.
The organization believes that the Belgian Parliament, in
enacting the 1993 law providing for universal jurisdiction over
war crimes, as well as in its 1999 amendment to that law
extending its scope to crimes against humanity and genocide,
intended to provide Belgian courts with the full extent of
universal jurisdiction over these crimes permitted under
international law.
In fact, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 authorize
Belgium to open an investigation for grave breaches of
humanitarian law regardless of the location of the suspect and to
seek the extradition of any person suspected of grave breaches
with a view to exercising universal jurisdiction even if that
person has never been in that country.
The next step in this case is an appeal to the Court of
Cassation. If this unfortunate decision is upheld on appeal,
Amnesty International will seek an amendment of the Belgian law
to ensure that Belgium can continue to act on behalf of the
international community in investigating and prosecuting the
worst possible crimes in the world when states where the crime
occurred have failed to fulfil their responsibilities under
international law.
"The massacres of Sabra and Shatila refugee camps were
war crimes and need to be fully and impartially investigated,"
said Amnesty International.
"International law to combat impunity must not be
undermined, especially as the International Criminal Court will
enter into force on 1 July."
Amnesty International is awaiting the full text of the
judgement
Background
As the results of an Amnesty International study of national law
in more than 125 countries published in September 2001
demonstrate, international law permits any state to exercise
universal jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity,
genocide, torture and, indeed, even ordinary crimes, and all but
a handful of the national laws providing for universal
jurisdiction do not contain any requirement that the suspects be
present in the country in order for the police, prosecutors or
investigating judges to open a criminal investigation.
The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Geneva Convention I,
Art. 49; Geneva Convention II, Art. 50; Geneva Convention III,
Art. 129; Geneva Convention IV, Art. 146) permit any state party
to open an investigation of grave breaches and to request the
extradition of suspects without any requirement that the suspects
have ever entered territory subject to that state's jurisdiction,
as long as they have sufficient information concerning the
possible criminal responsibility of the suspect (prima facie
evidence):
"The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any
legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for
persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave
breaches of the present Convention defined in the following
Article 50 (Convention I):
Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation
to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have
ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring
such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own
courts. It may also, if it prefers, and in accordance with the
provisions of its own legislation, hand such persons over for
trial to another High Contracting Party concerned, provided such
High Contracting Party has made out a ' prima facie' case."
For more information, please see:
Universal jurisdiction: Belgian court has jurisdiction in Sharon
case to investigate 1982 Sabra killings and Chatila killings:
http:www.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/ior530012002
Amnesty International urges investigation of Ariel Sharon:
http:www.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/mde150892001
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