Thursday, February 14 &endash; Online Edition, Posted at 2:09 PM EST

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Reuters News Agency

David Irving comments: THE British press also reported this unfortunate decision — The Daily Telegraph placed it right beneath the latest report on the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before a British judge at The Hague, which was as close as these brave journalists ventured to a comment on the cynicism of their own government. The World Court decision is unfortunate, because it appears to draw a line under attempts to level the playing field of international law. The perception is: If you are an Israeli, you can murder, destroy, and commit genocide — and get away with it. The law will be bent to let you slither off the hook. If you are a Pentagon general or Nato politician, you can do much the same. For Christians, the consolation is that all these mass murderers and war criminals will one day meet their Maker, and face for a terrifying eternity the anger of all those whom they have violated.

The Hague — The World Court sounded the death knell for a Belgian attempt to try Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged war crimes Thursday, ruling that serving ministers are protected from prosecution.

Jan Devadder, legal adviser to the Belgian Foreign Ministry, said The Hague-based International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) landmark decision probably will prompt Belgium to drop its case against Mr. Sharon.

“The Sharon case, in my opinion, is closed,” Mr. Devadder told Reuters after the ruling by the United Nation’s highest judicial body.

The ICJ, also known as the World Court, ruled that Belgium had no right to issue an arrest warrant for a former Congolese minister accused of human rights abuses as he was immune from prosecution.

The case is similar to the Sharon lawsuit being considered by Belgian courts.

The court concluded that there exists “no exception under international law to the rule establishing immunity from criminal process before foreign national courts,” president of the court Gilbert Guillaume said.

The ICJ ruling is likely to have a bearing in a backlog of other cases in Belgium against high-profile politicians for alleged war crimes and human rights abuses, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Belgium successfully used the law last June to convict four Rwandans, including two Benedictine nuns, of genocide.

The ICJ was called to settle a dispute between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its former colonial master after Belgium used its human-rights laws to issue an arrest warrant for former foreign minister Yerodia Aboulaye Ndombasi on charges of crimes against humanity.

As part of its decision, the ICJ ordered Belgium to cancel the arrest warrant.

The court “contended in the first place that the investigating judge was not entitled to hold himself competent in respect of the offences in question relying on a universal jurisdiction not recognized by international law,” Judge Guillaume said.

The flamboyant Mr. Yerodia was accused of inciting hatred against ethnic Tutsis in August, 1998, in speeches referring to “vermin” and “extermination.” Up to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

The arrest warrant, issued in April, 2000, prompted the late Congolese president Laurent Kabila to shift Mr. Yerodia to the Education Ministry. He has been out of government since last April.

The ICJ’s ruling also criticized the fact that Belgium’s legislation allowed foreign public figures to be tried for alleged human-rights crimes, wherever they were committed, while still in office.

The case against Mr. Sharon in Belgium was brought by a group of Palestinians. They allege that Mr. Sharon, Israeli defence minister in 1982, was involved in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

The lawsuit against Sharon — on genocide and war-crimes charges — has been delayed while a Brussels appeals court decides if Belgium has the right to prosecute the Israeli leader.

“They (Belgian judges) will have to take into account today’s judgment. The judgment is clear: immunity for all ministers for all crimes while they are still in office,” Mr. Devadder said.

“I think we need a discussion in Parliament,” he said, referring to a possible revision of the law that has cost the Belgian government many red faces.

Lawyer Luc Walleyn, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Mr. Sharon, said the ruling is a “setback.”

“It’s maybe too early to predict exactly what the influence will be on the case,” he said, adding the ruling would launch a new debate on how the country’s judicial system should act.

Congolese ambassador to The Netherlands Jacques Masangu-a-Mwanza said: “Our feeling is one of satisfaction. We are very, very happy because the case was judged correctly.”

He insisted there were no hard feelings between his country and Belgium. “We will remain friends,” he said.

 Sharon furious as Belgian court summons him for questioning on war crimes  | Sharon formally summonsed to face music [our comment: Bush, Blair next, for bombing-war?]

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