Israeli Elite Warned: They Face Arrest

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may hire lawyer as Belgian war crimes investigation begins: Countries may extradite

Alan Philps
The Daily Telegraph, with files from news services

JERUSALEM - The Israeli Foreign Ministry has warned several former army and security officials to avoid countries where they could be open to prosecution for war crimes.

The warning follows attempts in Belgium to bring a case for war crimes against Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, over his role in the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in 1982, when he was defence minister.

Although there have been calls for the prosecution of other public figures for crimes against humanity -- among them Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state, and Fidel Castro, the Cuban President -- only Belgium has actually staged such a trial.

In 1993, the country enacted a law that stipulates war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide can be tried in its courts, regardless of where the crimes took place or the nationality or residence of either the victims or the accused.

Mr. Sharon could be prosecuted under this law, which has already seen the convictions of four Rwandans, including two Roman Catholic nuns, for crimes committed in the central African nation during the genocide of 1994.

Cases are also pending in Brussels against several world political figures, including Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president, General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, and three Cambodian Khmer Rouge leaders.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday it has ordered a survey of the legal systems of European states in view of the growing tendency of countries to issue arrest warrants for alleged crimes committed outside their territory and not by their own citizens.

Britain is among the countries being studied because it detained Gen. Pinochet after an arrest warrant was issued by a Spanish judge for crimes against humanity.

The UN’s planned International Criminal Court would also be able to try suspects from any country, provided the crime is serious enough -- genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity -- and provided that their own national jurisdiction is unwilling or unable to prosecute.

Both Israel and the United States are opposed to such a court, although Israel always supported the idea of expanding jurisdiction to ensure Nazi war criminals were brought to justice.

Now it is braced for suits to be filed against Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, chief of staff of the Israeli military, Major-General Dan Halutz, the air force commander, and other top officers involved in ordering attacks on Palestinians during the past 10 months of violence.

Yesterday, Army Radio reported Mr. Sharon was about to appoint a Belgian lawyer to defend him in the event he is indicted in Belgium. Previously, he had taken the view the accusation of war crimes in 1982 was beneath contempt.

A spokesman for Mr. Sharon refused to comment on the radio report, which added that a senior aide to Mr. Sharon was meeting jurists and top officials to work out a strategy to handle the case.

“Any decisions taken about the ongoing events in Belgium will be made by the Israeli judiciary in consultation with other experts,” Mr. Sharon’s office said.

Mr. Sharon’s change of tactic reflects his belief he can fend off the case and Israel must make a stand against a development that could affect any official who has played a military or security role since the founding of the state in 1948.

An Israeli commission of inquiry censured Mr. Sharon after the 1982 massacres. It concluded he should have known the Christian Phalangist militiamen he sent into the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut were likely to murder hundreds of women and children, this being a tradition of the Lebanese civil war.

Israeli fears of prosecution have been highlighted by the government’s attempts to post Carmi Gillon, a former head of the Shin Bet domestic security service, as ambassador to Denmark.

Danish officials have said Mr. Gillon could be arrested as a torturer because of the way his service extracted confessions from Palestinian suspects.

Mr. Gillon ruined his chances of a quiet diplomatic posting by suggesting to the Danish media that “moderate physical pressure” might be needed again because of the spate of Palestinian suicide bombings.

In Brussels, meanwhile, the Belgian magistrate who has been asked to prepare a possible court case against Mr. Sharon has begun hearing plaintiffs.

Michael Verhaeghe, a lawyer acting for a Palestinian woman who escaped the massacres, said examining magistrate Patrick Collignon has interviewed his client.

Mr. Sharon could face two indictments for the deaths of 800 to 2,000 Palestinians. One complaint, lodged by an ad hoc group of Palestinian, Lebanese, Moroccan and Belgian nationals, accuses him of responsibility.

A second alleges crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes and was filed by 23 survivors of the massacres.

Mr. Verhaeghe, who was involved in the attempts to extradite Gen. Pinochet to Spain, said the examining magistrate could call Mr. Sharon to testify during the inquiry.