Brussels
Bowing to pressure from the U.S., Belgium this week said it would amend its “universal jurisdiction” law, which allows charges of war crimes committed anywhere to be brought in Belgian courts. Iraqi expatriates earlier this year charged President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with war crimes stemming from the Iraq war. Those cases were thrown out, but the U.S., fearing a rash of politically motivated lawsuits, threatened to move NATO headquarters out of Belgium unless the 1993 law was amended. Belgium has now agreed to limit the law’s scope to cases where Belgians are directly involved as victims or suspects. “Certain organizations have used this law in an abusive manner,” Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said. “Modifying the law will make that impossible.” There was no immediate U.S. reaction.
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