Belgian prosecutors have requested that a case against the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, over the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees be considered admissible, the newspaper Le Soir reported yesterday. Two class action suits are pending against Mr Sharon in Belgium, charging him with responsibility for the 1982 massacres of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Chatila, Lebanon.
The cases have been brought under a Belgian law which allows for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to be heard in Belgian courts.
The two suits accuse Mr Sharon of allowing Lebanese Christian militias to kill between 800 and 2,000 Palestinian refugees at the two camps in an area controlled by the Israeli military after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Mr Sharon was defence minister.
An Israeli commission of inquiry in 1983 found Mr Sharon indirectly responsible for the killings, a finding that forced him to resign. The first suit was lodged last June by an ad hoc committee of Palestinians, Lebanese, Moroccans and Belgians. The second, alleging crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, was filed later last month by 23 survivors of, and five witnesses to, the massacres.
Cases pending under the Belgian law include charges against the former Iranian president Mr Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Gen Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator. Gen Pinochet underwent oral surgery in a military hospital in Santiago last night after an infection flared up, triggering swings in his blood pressure. A Chilean court is set to decide shortly whether Gen Pinochet, who ruled with an iron first between 1973 and 1990, is well enough mentally to stand trial on charges of covering up killings and abductions.
On arrival, Gen Pinochet (85) was suffering "weakness and indisposition," the hospital said.
David Horovitz adds from Jerusalem: In Israel the Sharon war crimes issue has made little public impact in the last few days, now that the controversy that accompanied the broadcast last month of the BBC Panorama documentary on Mr Sharon has died down.
Behind the scenes, however, some aides to Mr Sharon are taking the matter extremely seriously, and are seeking ways to minimise the likelihood of Mr Sharon actually facing indictment.