September 24, 2003
Belgium's highest court dismissed war crimes complaints Wednesday against former President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ruling the country no longer has a legal basis to charge them.
The decision was expected to improve Belgium's diplomatic relations with the United States and Israel, which hit their lowest points in decades over the complaints. The cases were based on a Belgian universal jurisdiction law allowing for foreigners to file genocide and war crimes complaints against foreign leaders.
Under international pressure, Parliament amended the 1993 law in August to require that human rights complaints could only be filed if the victim or suspect was a Belgian citizen or long-term resident at the time of the alleged crime. Parliament also guaranteed diplomatic immunity for world leaders and other government officials visiting the country. The changes brought Belgian law in line with the rest of Western Europe while removing a source of diplomatic friction. The Bush administration had threatened to move NATO headquarters out of Belgium over the country's use of the law to file complaints against U.S. and other foreign leaders.
``As long as complaints based on the universal jurisdiction law were not thrown out, we cannot resume (high level) official contacts with the United States,'' Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said Wednesday.
The complaints alleging war crimes against Bush, Powell, and Vice President Dick Cheney were filed on behalf of the families of seven Iraqis killed or injured during the 1991 Gulf War.
Lawyers filed a complaint against Sharon alleging he was responsible for a 1982 massacre of Palestinians by a Lebanese Christian militia in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon. At the time, Sharon was Israel's defense minister. He became prime minister in 2001. An Israeli inquiry found Sharon indirectly responsible and forced him to resign as defense minister in 1983.
``We are satisfied with the decision,'' Israeli embassy spokesman Laurent Reichman said of the court ruling. ``Now, both Belgium and Israel are going to work hard again to have the same friendly relations we had before.''
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