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BRUSSELS, April 29: A Belgian lawyer said on Tuesday he would file a lawsuit against General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq, despite a warning from Washington against politically-motivated legal cases.
Lawyer Jan Fermon told Reuters he would file the lawsuit in a Brussels court next month on behalf of 19 Iraqis whom he described as victims of US cluster bombs and alleged US attacks on ambulances and civilians.
The case is based on evidence, including videotaped testimony, gathered by a group of Belgian doctors working in Baghdad, Fermon said.
The US State Department on Monday urged Belgium to be diligent in preventing the abuse for “political ends” of a Belgian law giving the country’s courts power to try foreigners for serious human rights crimes. Spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington believed lawyers were planning to file a suit against Franks.
“I think either the US State Department has nothing to hide, in which case it’s very important for them to have an independent inquiry — and why can’t it be a Belgian magistrate — or they have something to hide and that’s why they are threatening Belgium,” Fermon said.
He added that Franks, as commander of the US-led war that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, bore responsibility for the actions of his troops.
“If the Belgian law allowed me to also point out people who are politically responsible, I’d do it, but of course I can’t because they are protected by (diplomatic) immunity,” Fermon said. He did not give any names.
An official working for the legal department of the Belgian Foreign Ministry said it was too early to comment on the action.
TEST CASE: The lawsuit will be a test case for Belgium’s universal jurisdiction law which was recently revamped in a bid to stem a flood of cases deemed politically and diplomatically sensitive.
Legal moves against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former US President George Bush prompted criticism from Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who said it was not up to Belgium to judge them.
The reformed law allows Belgium to pass certain war crimes cases to other countries — raising the possibility it will eventually rid itself of a file against Sharon over the 1982 massacre of Palestinians at refugee camps in Beirut.
The changes to the law also allow the judiciary to reject complaints filed by plaintiffs who are not Belgian citizens or who have lived in Belgium for less than three years.
Where the victim or alleged perpetrator is not Belgian and the alleged crime was not committed in Belgium, a federal prosecutor would be able to decide whether to hand over a case to a magistrate.—Reuters
