UN gives early win to Sharon

In a landmark judgment that is expected to avert a genocide trial against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the World Court has ruled that Belgium cannot try political leaders for war crimes because they are protected by diplomatic immunity.

The decision by the top United Nations judicial instance in The Hague effectively halts a series of genocide trials that were pending in the Belgian courts under a unique 1993 law, which enables the Belgian courts to hear war crimes cases no matter where they were committed.

A Brussels judge is expected to decide on March 6 whether Sharon could face trial for his role in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanese refugee camps carried out by Christian militias allied to Israel, when he was defence minister. The case was brought by a group of Palestinians.

Israel reacted swiftly to the court decision.

Spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari said: "From the outset, the Israeli position was that the legal proceedings against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Belgium should be halted forthwith.

"The ruling of the court in The Hague bolsters the Israeli position, and for our part we will continue with our proceedings in the Belgian court until we persuade it of the justice of our cause."

The legal adviser to the Belgian Government also said: "The Sharon case, in my opinion, is closed. The judgment is clear: Immunity for all ministers for all crimes while they are still in office."

The court decision could lead Belgium to revise its laws and possibly drop its case against other high-profile leaders including Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The first trial under the Belgian war crimes law was held last year when four Rwandans, including two Catholic nuns, were given long prison sentences by a Brussels court for their role in 1994 massacres in their country.

But Cuban President Fidel Castro, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and ex-President Hashemi Rafsanjani of Iran have also been targeted by the Belgian courts.

In its ruling, the 15-judge tribunal told Belgium to cancel an international arrest warrant, issued in April 2000, for Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, a former foreign minister of the Congo who is wanted on charges against humanity.

Yerodia is wanted in Belgium in connection with the killing of hundreds of minority Tutsis in 1998. The court said he cannot be tried in Belgium for allegedly urging the slaughter of Tutsis because he was foreign minister at the time.

The plaintiffs were survivors of a massacre at the start of a rebellion against Congo's then-President Laurent Kabila, backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

"Jurisdiction does not imply absence of immunity," Judge Gilbert Guillaume, the tribunal president, said in a 90-minute reading of the ruling. He said Yerodia can only be tried in his own country, which alone can remove his immunity.

Guillaume cited the March 1999 decision of Britain's House of Lords to let the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet return home and not stand trial in Britain to account for the killings and disappearances of opponents during his years as leader.

The court said a foreign minister cannot be tried in a foreign court because "throughout the duration of his or her office, the minister, when abroad, enjoys full immunity from criminal jurisdiction."

Belgian lawyer Luc Walleyn, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Sharon, said the ruling was a setback.

"It's may be too early to predict exactly what the influence will be on the case."

- INDEPENDENT