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Belgian Prosecutors Put Forward Case Against Israel's Sharon
BRUSSELS, July 1 (News Agencies) - Belgian prosecutors have requested that a case against Israeli hardline Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees be considered admissible, Le Soir newspaper reported Sunday.
The request means that preparations for the case can procede while a Belgian court rules on the case's admissibility.
Two class action suits are pending against Sharon in Belgium, charging him with responsibility for the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Chatila, Lebanon.
The cases have been brought under a Belgian law which allows for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to be heard in the Belgian courts, regardless of where the alleged crimes took place, the nationality or residency of either the victims or the accused.
The 1993 law, modified in 1999, has led to a string of cases against foreign political leaders and has caused embarrassment in Belgian diplomatic circles.
The first suit against Sharon, lodged in June by an ad hoc committee of Palestinians, Lebanese, Moroccans and Belgians, alleges Sharon was responsible for the 1982 massacres of up to 2,000 Palestinian civilians in the Sabra et Chatila refugee camps.
The second, charging crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, was filed later last month by 23 survivors of, and five witnesses to, the massacres.
The two suits accuse Sharon of allowing Christian militias to slaughter between 800 and 2,000 Palestinian refugees at the two camps located in an area controlled by the Israeli military after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Sharon was defence minister.
An Israeli commission of enquiry in 1983 found Sharon indirectly responsible for the killings, a finding that forced him to resign his post.
Last January, when he was campaigning for the Israeli prime ministership, Sharon expressed regret for the "terrible tragedy" of the 1982 massacres, but refused to apologize.
Diplomatic opponents of the Belgian law's remit are expected to call for changes to the statute, including granting immunity to leaders in office.
Cases pending include charges against former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, one-time dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet and three Cambodian former Khmer Rouge leaders.
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