RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli Minister Ami Ayalon escaped arrest in the Netherlands after Dutch authorities rejected a request filed by the lawyer of a Palestinian who claims to have been tortured by an Israeli security agency.
According to an Israeli newspaper report, when Ayalon attended a conference in the Netherlands marking Israel’s 60th anniversary in May, a lawyer representing a Palestinian who claimed to have been tortured by the Shin Bet between 1999-2000, when Ayalon was the head of the Israeli internal intelligence agency, urged the Dutch attorney-general to order the detention of the Israeli minister.
Word of the attorney’s request reached Israeli officials, who immediately contacted Dutch authorities to make certain Ayalon would not be arrested. The report added that due to Holland’s speedy and positive response to Israel’s plea, the possibility of spiriting Ayalon out of the country immediately, as was the case with Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz’s visit to London, was not considered.
Ayalon was informed of the incident only two days after returning to Israel.
A few days ago the attorney sent a letter of complaint to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in which she claimed that the Dutch attorney-general “let a man suspected of torture escape arrest.”
Ayalon said in a statement: “I am proud of everything I did throughout my career to fight terror, including during my tenure as head of the Shin Bet.”
The report comes days after Israeli sources said Israel and Spain have been working to find a solution to brewing diplomatic tension after a Spanish human rights group demanded that seven Israeli officials involved in the assassination of senior Hamas official Salah Shihadeh be arrested if they set foot on Spanish soil.
Shihadeh, who led Hamas’ military wing Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, was targeted in a Gaza Strip operation in the summer of 2002. The operation resulted in the deaths of 15 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children. Dozens were wounded.
The rights group petitioned a Madrid court in June, demanding it issue arrest warrants against the Israeli officials involved in ordering Shihadeh’s assassination.
