CAIRO, 15 April 2005 — Members of the Egyptian Parliament filed on Wednesday a lawsuit against Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demanding compensation for the killings and torture of thousands of Egyptian prisoners of war during the 1956 and 1967 wars.

The Higher Administrative Court of Egypt ordered the ministries of foreign affairs and defense to present the court with evidence so that the Egyptian government can sue Israel in the International Criminal Court.

The parliamentarians accused Sharon, who was head of the 9th Brigade of the Israeli Army during the 1967 war, of involvement in the torture and killings of 16,000 Egyptian POWs. They demanded $70 million in compensation, trial of the Israeli officers and army generals involved in the crimes and an official apology.

Lawyer Mahmoud Said Lotfi, who had filed a lawsuit at a Sinai court earlier, said this time he and his team had strong evidence to prove the charges. “Last week, a mass grave discovered in Sinai yielded evidence that Israeli soldiers had executed a large number of Egyptian troops,” said Lotfi. “We had discovered a number of mass graves in the past and we will use them as evidence,” he told Arab News.