[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 28 (Friday, February 14, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S2520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RECENT RULING OF THE BELGIAN SUPREME COURT

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I was extremely disappointed to learn of 
yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Court of Belgium that Prime Minister 
Sharon of Israel could be tried in the Belgian courts for alleged war 
crimes once he leaves government service. The ruling also immediately 
makes retired IDF General Yaron and other eligible to be brought to 
trial at the convenience of the Belgian lower court.
  This action appears to supercede the authority of other national 
court systems, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, as well 
as the International Criminal Court which, for better or worse, was 
established last year with authority to try war crimes. The ruling sets 
an unwelcome precedent: empowering non-Belgian nationals to bring 
claims against other non-Belgian nationals in a Belgian court for 
alleged crimes having no connection to Belgium. The Belgian Supreme 
Court has now ruled that its lower courts have the right to sit in 
judgment of people who come from another nation and have allegedly 
committed a crime in a foreign land against another set of people from 
yet another foreign land. This is bad law and bad policy.
  With this ruling, Belgium has set itself and its legal system above 
all other nations. Belgium's status should be no different from that of 
any other sovereign state, entitling it to enact laws and judge its own 
citizens or anyone who commits crimes against them. But the Belgian 
legislature and its court has raised its country's justice system above 
those of every other nation, and is trying to impose its rule on the 
citizens of countries with no connection to Belgium. Even the Belgian 
prosecution noted its opposition to pursuing the complainants' 
petition.
  I hope that the Secretaries of State and Defense take note of this 
action by one of our NATO allies, especially as we prepare to 
potentially send our young men and women into battle in a land far 
away. There is no reason why they too, and their commanders, could not 
be similarly charged and prosecuted. What the Belgian court did was 
wrong. Our government should call upon them to consult with our 
Ambassadors to Belgium and NATO and express to the Belgian government 
an appropriate level of concern.

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