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| Europe |
| Belgium/Lebanon : politico-judicial manipulation against Israel? |
| 2006-07-27 |
| The Belgian daily newspaper « Le Soir » reported this morning that a complaint will be lodged today in Brussels, “against Israël for war crimes”. Belgian law, and especially the “Law of Universal competence” adopted in 1993 and since then amended several times, does in fact allow the lodging of complaints for crimes against humanity as long as there is link with Belgium (victims or perpetrators or Belgian residents, etc…). This is precisely the case because the two plaintiffs, Mr Ali Abdul-Sater and his wife Mrs Farkad El Husseini are both Belgian nationals of Lebanese origin who were on holidays in Beirut when the war broke out. Their apartment was destroyed and they had to flee the country via Syria under particularly traumatic circumstances. The complaint lodged mentions by name MM. Ehud Olmert, Prime minister, Amir Pertz, minister of Defense, and Dan Halutz, Chief of Staff. Without questioning the suffering, certainly very real of the plaintiffs, we cannot but wonder about the climate of political manipulation that seems to surround this complaint. But let’s for a moment consider this famous Law of universal competence : this law allowing the pursue of criminals who, without it, could benefit of impunity – would do honour to any democracy. In Belgium, unfortunately, it would rather raise smiles. This country has reached a level of corruption rarely equalled in the industrialised world (for months now, presumed corrupt practices within the socialist Party, principal party in government, multiply, the average person involved in legal actions waits for years for his case to be dealt with by the tribunals, which in many judicial districts do not pursue even minor offences because of judicial backlogs. Finally, many very interesting files have never been cleared, starting by those of the “killers of Brabant” that killed some 30 people in the eighties. And, is it this justice that we will say (in order to be polite to the magistrates who are in the first place the victims of the system) is a little slow, inefficient and politicised, that is going to throw light on the possible war crimes committed at the other end of the world? Absurd… But let us get down to the complaint itself. The barrister lodging it, Maître George-Henri Beauthier, is a well-known and respected figure of the Bar. He is also a man well-known to be leftist, which is entirely his right and, concerning Israel, this is not his first case. Some years ago he already lodged a complaint, always under the same Universal competence Law, against Ariel Sharon for the Sabra and Shatila massacres which, (it will be remembered, were committed by a Lebanese Christian militia, not by the Israeli army). So, today he takes on the cause of Mr. Ali Abdul-Sater and others, because he tells that others will follow. In passing he tells us that his client is Vice-President of the Association for a Laic Lebanon regrouping moderate citizens of all confessions worried about the future of Lebanon. It is not at all a question of a pro-Syrian or extremist movement. We will point out that the association « for a Laic Lebanon” seems to be a very recent creation which of course does not make it less pertinent . In Google we find only three or four references to this group and all of them date from the last few days. As for the internet site of the association it is only a blog created on… July 2006 and on which the oldest messages go back only to July 23. An association born perhaps merely of the circumstances, a slanted complaint, a militant barrister and something to make the front page of newspapers : it seems to us that there is more politics than thirst for justice in this affair. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #3 Why would any Aemrican officer accept a posting to NATO HQ? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-27 17:26 |
| #2 SOP -- victimhood + enablers |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-07-27 17:23 |
| #1 Let's remember that this country who feels itself qulifying for judging the world is the one where a pedophilic ring has been able to operate for years and who, for a previous offence, released its leader Marc Durtroux, with surprising celerity. |
| Posted by: JFM 2006-07-27 15:01 |