BRUSSELS, 26 November 2002 — Belgium’s highest court has indefinitely shelved an appeal hearing on charges of war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, officials said yesterday. Palestinians launched legal action in June 2001 over Sharon’s alleged role in two massacres. A lower case rejected the case, but it was to have been heard by the Cour de Cassation tomorrow. “We received a letter from the (court) indicating that the case... has been put off sine die,” said Michael Verhaeghe, a lawyer for the Palestinians who brought the original case. The Brussels court of appeal in late June rejected war crimes charges against Sharon over his role in the 1982 massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The court ruled that a suit brought by 23 massacre survivors was inadmissible because prosecutions could occur in Belgium for crimes committed abroad only if the suspect was present in Belgium. Sharon was defense minister when Israeli-allied Christian militias entered Sabra and Shatila in September 1982, killing between 800 and 2,000 Palestinian refugees. The massacre coincided with an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. (AFP)