The legal adviser to Belgium's foreign ministry said on Thursday he believed a war crimes lawsuit filed in Brussels against Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would be dropped following the World Court's ruling that all serving ministers should be protected from prosecution.
"The Sharon case, in my opinion, is closed," legal adviser Jan Devadder told Reuters after the ruling by the UN's highest judicial body.
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 prime minister.
"They 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."
Devadder added that it was no mistake that the Brussels ruling on Sharon was not scheduled to be released until after the World Court had given its ruling in the case of a Belgian arrest warrant issued for a former Congolese minister.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, ruled in a case similar to the Sharon one, 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 immunities under customary international law, including those of ministers for foreign affairs, remain opposable (applicable) before the courts of a foreign state, even where those courts exercise an extended criminal jurisdiction on the basis of various international conventions on the prevention and punishment of certain serious crimes," Gilbert Guillaume, president of the court, said in his ruling.
Belgium used a controversial human rights laws to issue an arrest warrant against the Congo's then-foreign minister Yerodia Aboulaye Ndombasi, on charges of crimes against humanity. The court ruled in favour of the Democratic Republic of Congo and said Belgium must cancel the arrest warrant.
The ICJ's landmark decision could lead Belgium to revise its laws and possibly drop its case against Sharon.
Alan Baker, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's legal adviser, told Jerusalem Post he was "pleased" by the decision.
"One of the central elements in our case in the Belgian courts was they have no jurisdiction to try the prime minister," Baker said. "We hope the Belgian court will recognize this principle and act accordingly."
Baker said it would be "highly unusual" for the Belgian court to go against a International Court of Justice ruling.
But Michael Verhaeghe, lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case against Sharon, said he believes the Sharon case can continue.
"I believe there is the possibility of continuing the investigation into Sharon, because our case cannot be considered an obstacle to the exercise of public functions as defined by the ICJ," he said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was disappointed by the ruling, which "effectively shields some state officials from prosecution for atrocities." (Albawaba.com)
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