MIDDLE EAST/BELGIUM: Belgium's supreme appeals court ruled yesterday that a genocide lawsuit against Mr Ariel Sharon could go ahead once he no longer enjoyed immunity as Prime Minister of Israel. Israel is to withdraw its ambassador to Brussels in protest at the move.
The ruling opened the way for survivors of the 1982 Beirut massacre of Palestinian refugees to press their case against the Israeli leader, whom they hold responsible for the deaths of hundreds of their kin.
The survivors had appealed against a lower court ruling last June that Mr Sharon could not be prosecuted over the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila camps in Israeli-occupied Beirut because he was not in Belgium.
The plaintiffs are using a Belgian human rights law which claims universal jurisdiction, allowing the country's courts to try crimes against humanity and genocide, no matter where they were committed. Mr Sharon was defence minister at the time of the massacre.