Elie Hobeika, militia-leader-turned-politician, claimed Thursday that he had evidence proving he had nothing to do with the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila in 1982, when he was a senior officer of the Christian Lebanese Forces, said the Daily Star. Meanwhile, Belgium said it will revise a law which allows prosecution of suspected war criminals.
Hobeika, who held several portfolios in postwar Cabinets and lost his seat as Baabda MP in last year’s polls, also expressed willingness to appear before a Belgian court currently studying the possibility of charging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with crimes against humanity for his role in the massacres.
Hobeika, who held a news conference at the Journalists Union Headquarters in Sioufi, would not elaborate on the nature of the documents, but he repeatedly stressed that they would “change the story told by the Kahan Commission.”
In 1983, Israel’s Kahan Commission blamed Hobeika, then a top-ranking Lebanese Forces official, for personally directing the Sabra and Shatila slaughter.
The commission also found then-Defense Minister Sharon “indirectly responsible” for the deaths, and said he had disregarded “the dangerous acts of vengeance and bloodshed” committed by Lebanese Forces militiamen inside the camps.
Nearly two dozen survivors of the killings filed suit in a Belgian court last month, accusing Sharon of crimes against humanity. The suit, spearheaded by prominent Lebanese lawyer Chibli Mallat, was made possible by a 1993 Belgian law which allows the court to try war crimes cases unrelated to Belgium.
Hobeika, who has yet to face any criminal inquiry over his possible role in the killings, said he was looking forward to the trial because it offered him a chance to prove his innocence and that of the “Lebanese party which the Israelis incriminated.”
“I am totally comfortable discussing the Sabra and Shatila issue before the Belgian court,” he said. “Perhaps, I will be given an opportunity, for the first time in 19 years, to expose the truth, defend myself, and present hard-core, irrefutable evidence … that I am innocent.”
But Hobeika denied that he might testify against Sharon in order to cut a deal with those trying to indict the Israeli prime minister, said the Daily Star. “I don’t need to make any deals,” he said.
He also described Belgium as “a neutral location far from the influence of political pressures,” and said he is speaking because the time is “right” for him to “act after a long period of silence.”
Without specifically naming the Lebanese Forces, Hobeika said he possessed evidence which would exonerate the militia of any involvement. However, he did acknowledge that there was “Lebanese involvement” in the massacres, but dismissed previous claims by reporters that witness accounts had placed him at the scene.
“You know this is not true,” he told a reporter who said there was TV footage of Hobeika in the camps. “I dare anyone to say that I was involved.
BELGIUM TO CHANGE RIGHTS LAW
Belgium said Thursday it planned to amend a controversial law that allows courts to prosecute foreign officials for human rights abuses committed abroad. The law threatens to overburden Belgium's justice system and jeopardize its diplomacy, said Reuters in a report published by Haaretz on Friday.
A Belgian judge has opened an investigation of Sharon for his alleged connection with Sabra and Shatila massacres..
The revised law would contain a "filter" to increase the threshold for applying the law to avoid "everybody prosecuting everybody", Johannes Thuy, a Justice Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying.
One option under consideration is suspending the admissibility of a complaint filed against a head of state, prime minister or government minister until after he or she leaves office, Thuy said.
Foreign Minister Louis Michel took the initiative to change the law, Verwilghen said. Michel was in Berlin to represent the EU in talks with Sharon Thursday.
"I didn't raise it. He raised it," Sharon said on his flight from Berlin to Paris. "He said it had severely embarrassed them and they are trying to find a way to end the embarrassment." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
