Sharon's lawyer to contest jurisdiction of Belgian Judge
Israel-Belgium, Politics, 7/28/2001

The Belgian lawyer hired by the Israeli government to defend premier Ariel Sharon said Friday she will argue that the Belgian investigative judge has no jurisdiction to probe the complaints submitted by a number of Palestinians who survived the 1982 Sabra and Chatilla massacres.

She said she will present the judge next week with all the evidence necessary to show that there should not be a case in the first place because the Israeli judiciary already settled the case in 1983.

The current investigation into the palestinians' complaints is an infringement on the judicial sovereignty of Israel, the lawyer said in an interview published Friday in "la libre belgique" newspaper. she referred to the committee formed by the Knesset and led by Israel's high court chief justice Yitzhak Kahana, saying it had not convicted Sharon, then defence minister, and had not referred the case to relevant judicial authorities.

She said the Belgian law is very complicated and is full of problems with regard to explanation and implementation, stressing the need for reviewing the law without emptying it of its purport.

Meanwhile, Luc Walleyn, the Belgian lawyer, who submitted the complaints on behalf of Sabra and chatilla survivors, refuted the claims of Sharon's lawyer.

The first mistake is that the lawyer does not represent the Israeli government or the Jewish state, but rather Sharon, to defend him against the charge of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, Walleyn said in statements to MENA.

The case is not a political one among countries, he said, but rather a humanitarian case based on complaints, from victims who survived the massacres, that are consolidated by the Kahana commission condemnation of Sharon that led to his resignation as defence minister at the time.

Sharon was never tried before any judicial body, Walleyn said, adding that the commission was merely a fact-finding panel with no jurisdiction at all.

The principle of double jeopardy could not be applied here because Sharon was not tried before, Walleyn concluded.

Previous Stories:
  Trial of Sharon, Geiloun case intensify relations between Israel and each of Belgium, Denmark   (7/26/2001)
  Belgian attorney holds a press conference in Cairo   (7/21/2001)
  Belgian lawyer in conference on Israeli apartheid   (7/17/2001)

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