(AP/New York Times) Britain pledged on Tuesday to change a peculiar legal power that permits judges to order the arrest of visiting politicians and generals, a threat currently focused on Israeli officials that could potentially be invoked against President Obama or Russian Prime Minister Putin. The latest target has been Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister of Israel and currently the country's opposition leader. Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials by judges invoking universal jurisdiction. Legal experts in England and Israel say "universal jurisdiction" could be abused endlessly to harass any high-profile visitor who oversaw a military or anti-terrorist operation. "Why not use this against Vladimir Putin over Russia's role in Chechnya? There is no end to it," said Yehuda Blum, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN. "The abuse and misuse of this concept of universal jurisdiction should be discontinued." Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at Oxford University, said the demands of global diplomacy required leaders to be able to travel abroad without facing arrest threats.
2009-12-16 08:41:12Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive