In 1993, five years before Spain's dramatic attempt to extradite Pinochet from Britain, the Belgian Parliament had already passed a law formally incorporating universal jurisdiction for war crimes into Belgium's criminal code. In 1999, the parliament strengthened the initial law by passing additional legislation removing immunity for sitting heads of state accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. The first complete trial and conviction of individuals accused of war crimes under this law took place in 2001, when a Belgian court found four Rwandans - two nuns, a political leader and the owner of a match factory - guilty of complicity in genocidal crimes in Rwanda and sentenced them to prison for 15 years.
Possibly the most controversial case to be pursued under the principle of universal jurisdiction since the Pinochet affair, the case against Sharon and others was lodged in a Belgian court in June 2001 under the 1993 legislation. The plaintiffs were 23 individuals, stateless Palestinian refugees and impoverished Lebanese nationals, usually considered among the least powerful people in the international political system, who had witnessed and survived a massacre two decades ago.
Possibly the most controversial case to be pursued under the principle of universal jurisdiction since the Pinochet affair, the case against Sharon and others was lodged in a Belgian court in June 2001 under the 1993 legislation. The plaintiffs were 23 individuals, stateless Palestinian refugees and impoverished Lebanese nationals, usually considered among the least powerful people in the international political system, who had witnessed and survived a massacre two decades ago.