Britain pledged on Tuesday to reform a peculiar legal power that lets judges order the arrest of visiting politicians and generals — a threat currently focused on Israeli visitors that one day might be invoked against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or even US President Barack Obama.
Lawyers working with Palestinian activists in recent years have sought the arrest of senior Israeli civilian and military figures under terms of “universal jurisdiction.” This ill-defined legal concept empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict.
Their latest target is Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister and current opposition leader, who staunchly defends Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s government confirmed on Tuesday that she canceled a planned London trip this month after her office received news of a secretly issued arrest warrant awaiting her arrival.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband later announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion.
Speaking after meeting Israel’s London ambassador on Tuesday night, Miliband said the British law permitting judges to issue arrest warrants against foreign dignitaries “without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor” had to be reviewed and reformed.
Miliband said the British government was determined that arrest threats against visitors of Livni’s stature would not happen again.
Legal experts in England and Israel say “universal jurisdiction” could be abused endlessly to harass, if not effectively incarcerate, 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, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, who teaches law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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