BRUSSELS/BEIRUT, 27 June — Lawyers for the 1982 Palestinian victims of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacre will appeal yesterday’s Belgian court ruling which decided that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon — held personally responsible for the killings by Israel’s own commission of inquiry — cannot be indicted for the slaughter.
A Belgian court ruled that the case against Sharon could not proceed because Sharon, who was the Israeli defense minister in 1982, is not in Belgium — even though the 1993 Belgian law grants its courts "universal jurisdiction" over war crimes wherever they are committed.
Michael Verhaeghe, one of the lawyers for the group of Palestinians, told reporters that his clients would appeal to the country’s Supreme Court of Appeal. "We are not satisfied with this," he said. "It completely undermines the scope of universal jurisdiction. We are appealing to the Supreme Court. The fight goes on, that’s clear."
The indictment chamber of the Brussels appeal court ruled that the case — lodged by 23 Palestinians who survived the bloodshed at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps — was inadmissible because Sharon was not inside Belgium when it was lodged a year ago. "The Belgian courts have competence with regards to cases that concern serious violations of human rights," a court spokesman said. "But for cases based on universal competence ... it is necessary that the alleged perpetrators be in the territory of the kingdom (of Belgium). Otherwise they are inadmissible," he said.
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees read the ruling as a sign that Europe had joined the United States in backing Israel in its conflict with Palestinians, and that they could expect no justice in its courts.
"There were already steps to head off the court proceedings, but they let them go on to display a sort of fraudulent democracy," said Hussein Al-Jamal, a 42-year-old resident of the Rashidiyeh camp in south Lebanon.
The ruling deals a major blow to Belgium’s law giving the country’s courts the right to try foreigners for serious human rights abuses wherever they are committed.
It was under this controversial law that a group of Palestinian and Lebanese filed the complaint last year, accusing Sharon of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Daniel Shek, director for European affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, hailed the ruling at a press conference in Brussels shortly after it was announced. "It started with more politics than law," he said of the case. "It is happy that the outcome is more law than politics. We trusted the system."
But a survivor of the massacre who lost her father and six brothers, said: "My disappointment with Belgian justice is complete. I would have preferred to have died than to hear this," Souad said. (The Independent)
