Israel als Schurkenstaat 14

Europe wary of following Dubai killers' trail

By FRANK JORDANS (AP) – 2 days ago

GENEVA — A killer — or killers — may be on the loose in Europe after a Hamas operative was slain last month in Dubai.

European nations, however, seem to be in no rush to find him, her or them.

The spotlight is falling on those countries where police say the alleged assassins' trails begin and end: Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Authorities there have either declined to say whether they are investigating, or told The Associated Press they have no reason to hunt down the 26 suspects implicated in the Jan. 19 killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

European countries' reluctance to investigate may have something to do with the widely held belief that the killing of al-Mabhouh was carried out by a friendly country's intelligence agency — Israel's Mossad. The Jewish state has previously identified him as the point man for smuggling weapons to the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers.

Experts say arresting Israeli agents — or even digging up further evidence that Israel was involved — could be politically costly.

"I would guess that it's in the political interest of certain countries not to get proactive in this case," said Victor Mauer, deputy director of the Center for Security Studies at Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology.

"Countries such as Germany have a special relationship with Israel because of their history and therefore wouldn't be interested in investigating," he said.

Switzerland's federal prosecutor's office says it has "no evidence relating to this case that would justify opening an investigation," although Dubai police insist that eight of the suspects fled Dubai for Zurich.

Dutch and Italian officials, too, said they aren't investigating the flight of six suspects to Amsterdam and Rome.

All three countries say they haven't received an official request for help from Dubai yet, though authorities there have asked Interpol to circulate arrest warrants that the Arab emirate issued for 11 suspects charged with "coordinating and committing the murder."

Dubai police did not respond to repeated requests by The Associated Press for comment on cooperation with European and other police agencies in the investigation. But Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim was quoted by the Dubai-based Al Bayan newspaper Saturday as saying that an international security team has been created through diplomatic channels to aid in the cross-border hunt. No other details were given in the report.

France, meanwhile, has said it is only probing the alleged use of three French passports in the crime. Two suspects landed in Paris on Jan. 20. Their trail ends there.

Germany, too, is investigating the possibility that a forged or illegally obtained German passport was used. But prosecutors in the German city of Frankfurt, where four suspects returned, say they aren't investigating the killing itself and don't see any reason to, as most likely no crime was committed in Germany.

Philip Alston, an independent U.N. human rights investigator and New York University law professor, said European countries would be wrong to ignore the case.

"If a foreign intelligence agency was responsible for the killing of al-Mabhouh, the matter should clearly be classified as an extrajudicial execution," he said. "All states have an unquestioned obligation to investigate and prosecute anyone accused of a killing who they have reason to believe is within their jurisdiction. Political considerations can never be invoked to avoid taking the necessary action."

Michael Boyle, a lecturer in strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, said European countries were "unlikely or unwilling to make it a serious political issue with Israel. It's going to raise up embarrassing questions and complicate their relationship with Israel," he said.

Boyle said the focus on forged passports made sense, however. "I think there's a concern on the part of European governments that if this process of Israeli operatives using European passports were to continue, that would put European citizens at risk."

Britain has sent a special police investigator to Israel to meet with six dual nationals whose passports were used in the assassination, even though they weren't in Dubai at the time. Australia and Ireland also have sought clarifications from Israel on the alleged use of their passports.

Only Austria has gone further and investigated whether Austrian SIM cards were used. Interior Ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia declined to provide details about the findings except to say there are no indications that there was a "command center" in Austria, as Dubai police have claimed.

Boyle said there was "a certain degree of moral revulsion and disgust" among European countries "because this is a murder."

But "there's an understanding that these sort of intelligence operations get conducted, but don't get caught with it and don't make it politically costly for us. I think that's the real story of the Dubai incident."

Associated Press Writers Deborah Seward in Paris, Vanessa Gera in Rome, Bruce Mutsvairo in Amsterdam, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna, Brian Murphy in Dubai and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWfXiFbKoE0Ui5d_4IkLFPB1bmFgD9E4N0301

Dutch authorities let Israel get away with torture
Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada, 17 October 2008

Ami Ayalon (Iyad Atayat/MaanImages)

Last May, although he was visiting the Netherlands, Dutch police failed to arrest Ami Ayalon, an Israeli government minister. An application for Ayalon's arrest had been submitted to Dutch authorities by Khalid al-Shami, a Palestinian man who alleged he was tortured by Israel's Shin Bet secret service when Ayalon ran it. It was a narrow escape; but credible reports indicate that Dutch authorities actively colluded with Israel to frustrate the course of justice.

Al-Shami had tried fruitlessly for years to get Israel to investigate his claim that after he was arrested by soldiers on 31 December 1999 he was subjected to weeks of often round-the-clock interrogation and mistreatment amounting to torture at Israel's Ashkelon prison. Al-Shami alleged that he was subjected to extreme cold, stretching, sleep deprivation and being bound to a painfully small chair by his hands and feet for long periods. He was denied legal representation for the first twenty days, before the Israeli military court extended his detention for an additional month.

A month before Ayalon's four-day visit to the Netherlands, European Union governments had adopted updated Guidelines on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment. These called on all countries to ensure that their judicial systems would effectively pursue allegations of torture, protect victims, and investigate suspects and bring them to justice in fair trials. The EU's goals were nothing less than to prevent and eliminate torture and impunity wherever it occurred.

There is ample reason for them to focus on Israel. In February 2000, Israeli authorities released a previously secret state comptroller's report acknowledging for the first time that the Shin Bet "knowingly" committed torture. Israel's high court acknowledged as much two years later when it banned the use of "physical pressure" in interrogations.

In November 2001, the United Nations Committee on Torture added its voice, expressing its concern about Israel's use of methods similar to those alleged by al-Shami against both adults and minors. While acknowledging Israel's security concerns, the UN report emphasized that "no exceptional circumstances" could justify torture. Israel's state prosecutor received over 500 complaints of Shin Bet mistreatment since December 2001, yet, a joint report by the Israeli human rights organizations B'Tselem and Hamoked protested, the prosecutor "has not found cause to order the instigation of a single criminal investigation."

It was because of such systematic impunity that al-Shami was forced to take his quest for justice abroad. "Ayalon's visit to the Netherlands provided an exceptional opportunity and engaged a duty to arrest him and establish jurisdiction," said the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights which has helped gather evidence in al-Shami's case and those of other victims seeking legal redress outside Israel, "in accordance with the legal principle of universal jurisdiction."

Al-Shami's lawyers' initial 16 May torture complaint included a request for urgency because Ayalon was only scheduled to be in the Netherlands for a few days to speak at a conference organized by a Dutch pro-Israel organization. On 18 May, Dutch Foreign Affairs minister Maxime Verhagen attended the event and declared that he was "lucky to be in the company" of Ayalon.

Only one month later, on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the EU issued a statement condemning any action or attempt by states or public officials to legalize, authorize or acquiesce in torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under any circumstances, including on grounds of national security or through judicial decisions.

Though time was pressing, the Dutch Public Prosecutor failed to initiate an investigation because another body, the College of Procurators-General, had to rule on whether Ayalon had immunity. When their decision arrived on 21 May that he could be charged in the Netherlands, it was a day too late.

This was no accident of timing, according to a report in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth on 7 October. As soon as Israeli officials learned of al-Shami's legal action, they "immediately contacted Dutch authorities to make certain Ayalon would not be arrested." The Dutch government's "speedy and positive response to Israel's plea," the newspaper said, meant that Israeli officials did not have to consider "the possibility of spiriting Ayalon out of the country immediately," as they had done in other cases of senior Israeli officials being pursued by judicial authorities in Europe (Itamar Eichner, "Report: Minister Ayalon evaded arrest in Holland," YNet, 7 October 2008).

The Dutch daily De Volkskrant cited an Israeli government official confirming the contacts between the Israeli and Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice. Not only did the Dutch foreign minister publicly associate himself with Ayalon while the latter was been accused of torture, but, it would appear, his department helped the accused get away.

This is not only a violation of al-Shami's rights and a further slap in the face of Palestinian torture victims, it is a grave violation of the Netherlands' commitments under international law and further exposes Europe's shameless collusion with Israel's mounting human rights crimes.

Arjan El Fassed is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and the author of Niet iedereen kan stenen gooien (Uitgeverij Nieuwland, 2008).

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9897.shtml