June 11, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1424

BRUSSELS, June 10: A Belgian court on Tuesday said it can try former Israeli General Amos Yaron on charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1982 massacre of thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps.

The Belgian court said it had no reason to reject the complaint against the general.

A similar case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was dropped earlier this year after a higher Belgian court ruled that a serving head of government could not be tried in Belgium.

The complaint against Yaron was originally made in June 2001 but suspended in September of that year while lawyers argued whether the case could be tried in a Belgian court.

Belga news agency said the case against Yaron would probably be restarted unless the Belgian government decided that the complaint fell under Israeli jurisdiction.

The lawsuit against Yaron was filed under a controversial Belgian law which allows charges of crimes against humanity to be tabled in the country’s courts regardless of the nationality of the accused and the location where the alleged crimes were committed.

Changes made to the law this year, however, allow the government to stop any legal proceedings in Belgium and transfer the case to the defendant’s country of origin instead.

Belgium used the new rule earlier this year to refer a similar war crimes complaint against United States General Tommy Franks to the US courts.

Lawyers for the Palestinians who filed the case against Yaron said they hoped the government would not give in to pressure from Israel.

Yaron, currently secretary general at Israel’s ministry of defence, was responsible for the Beirut sector in 1982 when Lebanese militia entered the Sabra and Chatila camps and killed between 800 and 3,500 Palestinians. Sharon was Israel’s defence minister at the time. The case against Yaron has been filed by 23 Palestinians who escaped the massacres.—dpa