[Reuters] A federal judge threw out a war crimes lawsuit on Wednesday against former director of the Shin Bet security service Avi Dichter, currently Israel's Minister of Internal Security, for an Israel Air Force strike in Gaza City on July 22, 2002, that targeted Hamas leader Saleh Shehada, but also killed 14 Palestinian civilians. In the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Judge William Pauley ruled that Dichter could not be sued because he was acting as a government official at the time. Israel and the U.S. State Department had petitioned the court to grant Dichter's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
2007-05-03 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive