>Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 13:38:34 -0600
>From: "Laurie King-Irani" <coordinator@indictsharon.net>
>To: coordinator@indictsharon.net
>Reply-To: coordinator@indictsharon.net
>Organization: ICJVSS
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77C-CCK-MCD {C-UDP; EBM-APPLE} (Macintosh; U; PPC)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>Subject: The case against Ariel Sharon: Belgian Appeals Court agrees to new
> hearing
>
>PRESS RELEASE
>
>INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE
>FOR THE VICTIMS OF SABRA AND SHATILA
>
>Belgian Appeals Court agrees to New Hearing, Re-Opening of Arguments, in
>War Crimes Case against Ariel Sharon and other Israelis and Lebanese
>
>DATE: 6 March 2002
>
>FOR: Immediate Release
>
>CONTACT: Laurie King-Irani, North American Coordinator, International
>Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, +1 (250)
>213-6872 (Canada)
>
>WEBSITE: http://www.indictsharon.net
>SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWS LIST: indictsharon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>The Court of Appeals of Brussels today agreed to a request made by
>lawyers for the survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre to schedule
>another hearing in a landmark case accusing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
>Sharon and other Israelis and Lebanese with war crimes and crimes
>against humanity.
>
>The lawyers requested the hearing in order to present an assessment of
>the recent Congo v. Belgium ruling of the International Court of Justice
>(ICJ). That ruling was delivered at The Hague on 14 February, after the
>last pre-trial hearing in the Sabra and Shatila case had taken place.
>
>An additional hearing under such circumstances is a logical legal
>request, but the plaintiffs' lawyers also wish to prevent the negative
>and hasty statements of some officials from influencing the Appeals
>Court's decision without the parties to the case having the opportunity
>to challenge them.
>
>And there is much to be challenged.
>
>First and foremost, the lawyers for the Sabra and Shatila massacre
>survivors wish to impress upon the Belgian court that the International
>Court of Justice (ICJ) has not ruled that the mere fact of a criminal
>investigation against a sitting foreign minister (or head of state)
>violates international law.
>
>To the contrary, the ICJ only declared illegal the arrest warrant that
>had been issued against the former Congolese foreign minister, Mr.
>Yerodia, but not the criminal investigation against him.
>
>Second, the arrest warrant issued against Mr. Yerodia was not based on a
>count of genocide. This distinction is important, since the 1948
>Genocide Convention expressly states, in article IV: "Persons committing
>genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be
>punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public
>officials or private individuals."
>
>As early as 1951, the same ICJ ruled that this Genocide Convention was
>"intended by the General Assembly and by the contracting parties to be
>definitely universal in scope." In a more recent ruling in 1996, the ICJ
>once again unambiguously confirmed the universal character of this
>convention.
>
>Genocide is one of the counts in the criminal investigation in the Sabra
>and Shatila case. [See http://www.indictsharon.net for all legal details
>about the case.] The plaintiffs' lawyers based their initial complaint
>of 18 June 2001 on numerous factual elements of the case and on a UN
>Resolution of December 1982, expressly declaring, with an overwhelming
>majority, that the massacre at Sabra and Shatila constituted an 'act of
>genocide' as defined by the 1948 Convention.
>
>Since an international convention has precedence over international
>customary law, and since the ruling of the ICJ in the Yerodia case was
>based entirely on an interpretation of international customary law (as
>the ICJ explicitly states), there can be no immunity for crimes of
>genocide, not even for acting foreign ministers or heads of state.
>
>These are only two of the arguments that the lawyers for the plaintiffs,
>Messrs. Walleyn, Mallat, and Verhaeghe, will present to the Belgian
>court. Other equally compelling arguments, some based on new facts
>discovered about events of September 1982, will be developed in an
>additional submission to the Court, which will hear all parties in this
>case at a hearing in Brussels on 15 May 2002.
>
>For more information including detailed background:
>http://indictsharon.net
>
>###
>
>
>
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