'Findings unlikely to help lawsuits against Israelis'

Findings unlikely to he

By DAN IZENBERG
The Goldstone Committee report will "provide a batch of new material" for those organizations already busy preparing lawsuits against Israel in countries that recognize universal jurisdiction, former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Allan Baker told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Some Western nations have laws that allow their courts to prosecute suspects for war crimes even where the suspect is not a citizen of the country and the alleged crime was supposedly committed elsewhere. Baker explained that in several countries, including Britain and Switzerland, there is no "filter" between the plaintiff and the court. In others, the attorney-general has the discretion to decide whether to reject or accept the complaint. In countries which do not have a filter, the plaintiff can go directly to the court and ask for an arrest warrant, without the government being able to do anything about it. There are organizations and individuals who devote their energies to preparing criminal complaints against Israeli leaders, Baker noted. They were doing it before the Goldstone Report and they will likely use the document to prepare more cases. But Baker added that those preparing these charges will have to do more work if they hope to succeed in winning convictions, because the Goldstone Report does not provide sufficient evidence in and of itself to support criminal charges.