BICOM

The House of Commons on Wednesday evening approved an amendment which would change the law under which Israeli leaders have faced arrest warrants in Britain for alleged war crimes. Universal jurisdiction legislation has been abused in recent years by pro-Palestinian activists in the UK to seek the arrest of Israeli officials.  Most notably, in December, 2009, a warrant was issued for the arrest of former-foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who had been scheduled to visit Britain to address a Jewish group. Under the existing law, an arrest warrant can be issued even if there is no evidence that would sustain a prosecution. According to the amendment, a private prosecutor would be required to obtain the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions prior to the issuing of an arrest warrant under universal jurisdiction.  This would make it far more difficult to obtain warrants where substantial evidence does not exist. The proposed amendment will now move to the House of Lords. It is hoped that the bill will pass all its parliamentary stages by the end of June.