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The Spanish Office of the Public Prosecutor informed the Israeli Foreign Ministry yesterday it had submitted a request to a Spanish judge asking him to dismiss a legal complaint against certain high-ranking Israeli officials.
The prosecutor’s office asked Hon. Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles, the investigating magistrate, to dismiss the complaint, which was lodged in connection with the Israeli Air Force’s bombing of a house containing a Hamas leader and 14 bystanders. Everyone inside the house was killed. The incident has commonly been referred to as the “Shehadeh matter.”
In a detailed 28-page submission to the court, the Spanish prosecutor’s office analyzed the legal and factual situation in the case and determined Spanish courts lacked proper jurisdiction to try the case. The decision was made on the basis of Spanish and international law and because “the State of Israel is a democratic state with an independent judiciary, which has primary jurisdiction over the incident, and which is currently investigating the matter in its own legal system.”
Because Israel currently has the case under legal review, the Spanish prosecutor found Israel “is in accordance with and above the international minimum standards required to a State that applies the Rule of Law.”
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The Spanish case was said to be the first of many cases where Israel critics abroad are turning to their local courts to demand that Israeli officers be prosecuted for “crimes against humanity.”
At least five cases are now pending in British courts against Israeli army officers who hesitate to visit Great Britain on official or private sojourns, for fear of arrest on British soil.
Although the Israelis have been spared a trial in Spain, the Spanish legal theory of universal jurisdiction, however, has not let six former Bush administration off the hook. A Spanish judge currently is reviewing charges against David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, Douglas Feith and William Haynes II – all former Bush administration officials – in connection with the waterboarding of al-Qaida mastermind Abu Zubaidah.
David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com
