Belgium: Sharon faces war crimes charges for murder of refugees:
01 January 2003
The Belgian Supreme Appeals Court has ruled that Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, can face a genocide lawsuit for the murder of between one and two thousand Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in 1982. The massacre was carried out by Israel's Lebanese christian allies, the Phalangists, a brutal and indiscriminate terrorist organisation that was armed and financed by the Israeli government. The support of the Israeli military, who sealed off the camps from the outside world so that the massacre could take place without interruption, was essential to the operation. An Israeli investigation found that Sharon, who was Defence Minister at the time of the slaughter, was "indirectly" responsible for the killings. Last summer a lesser court ruled that Sharon could not be tried under the law, but recent amendments have changed the situation. The present suit was brought by 23 survivors of the massacre under Belgian human rights law that allows for the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, no matter where they took place.