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Sharon Brought To Justice In Lebanon
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Sharon on
trial for slaughter of 2,000 civilians in Sabra and Shatila. |
BEIRUT, Feb. 13 (News Agencies &IslamOnline)- Parallel with the Belgium case filed against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as "indirectly responsible" for 1982 massacre in Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, a Lebanese court Wednesday has been hearing evidence presented by 21 Palestinian survivors of Sabra and Shatila refugee camp.
The case is part of a series of lawsuits filed June 11 by Lebanese lawyer May Khansa, who is close to the Shiite Muslim fundamentalist Hezbollah movement, in the name of six Palestinian and 16 Lebanese.
They lawsuits mainly accused Sharon of responsibility into the Sabra and Shatila massacres and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of the massacre of 105 civilians in an Israeli army shelling of a UN camp in south Lebanon in 1996.
Two witnesses gave evidence during the first session at Beirut's Justice Palace Wednesday February 13.
Mrs. Khansa has drawn up 73 charges against Israel
The lawsuit has been filed by their Lebanese lawyer, May Khansa, who blames Sharon for the massacre at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
She is also suing the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres over the abduction and assassination of leaders of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and a massacre of civilians in Lebanon when he was prime minister in 1996, BBC on line reported.
One of the witnesses, Amouna Madi Younes, told news agencies what she saw prior to the massacre in which her daughter died:
"We went to the roof and we began to watch (Ariel Sharon) while he was observing the camp with his field glasses," BBC quoted Younes as saying. "We did not understand anything. During the night they attacked the camp and slaughtered people."
The Lebanese lawyer, who is close to the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement, believes that the trial will have a positive influence on another case brought against Sharon in Belgium by a different group of 23 survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
"Shortly before the massacres started, I saw Ariel Sharon, surrounded by his aides, on a hilltop at about 20 meters (yards) from the entrance of Shatila, while peering at the camp with binoculars," Younes told the Lebanese judge, Agence France Presse (AFP) said.
"In the evening, armed men entered the camp. I fled with my youngest son while my daughter remained with her father at home," Younes told reporters.
"My husband's head was severed and I found the body of my daughter riddled with bullets. My brother and his three children were also killed," AFP quoted her as saying.
Younes said that she was not seeking financial compensation, as "it is enough for me that Sharon be convicted for his responsibility into the massacres."
Sharon's lawyers argue that he is immune from prosecution because he is a sitting head of government.
However, the Belgian law adopted in 1993 makes it possible to try anyone, including heads of state, for crimes against humanity, regardless of where they occurred.
The Belgian court will rule on 6 March whether Sharon can be tried in Belgium.
But several lawyers here have dismissed the trial in Lebanon against Sharon as a sham, and have put in doubt the competence of Lebanese courts to rule in such a lawsuit.
They also fear that Sharon's lawyers in Belgium will argue that if their client is being tried in a Lebanese court for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, there is no need for another trial in Belgium, BBC said.
An estimated between 800 and 1,500 Palestinians and Lebanese died in the camps at the hands of Israeli-allied Lebanese Christian militiamen after Israel invaded Beirut in 1982, when Sharon was Israel's Defense Minister.
Sharon was forced to resign after an Israeli inquiry found he was "indirectly responsible" for the massacres.
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