Gadhafi's daughter files war crimes lawsuit against NATO

[bemildred]

Source: DPA

Muammar Gadhafi's daughter has filed a war crimes lawsuit in Belgium over the April 30 NATO attack on the Libyan leader's compound, in which her infant daughter, brother and two nephews were killed, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Aisha Gaddafi reportedly filed the complaint under Belgium's "universal competence" law, war crimes or genocide suits can be brought against foreign leaders, as long as a connection can be established between Belgium and the defendant.

"We think that bombing a civilian home where a man and three children were living is not part of the mandate given to the members of the United Nations by the Security Council resolutions on Libya, "Luc Brossolet, a French lawyer acting for Aisha Gaddafi, told Belgium's Le Soir newspaper.

On April 30, NATO planes enforcing a no fly zone over Libya bombed Muammar Gadhafi's Tripoli compound, killing Saif al-Arab, his four-month-old granddaughter Mastoura and grandson's Seif and Carthage, both aged two.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/mideast-in-turmoil/gadhafi-s-daughter-files-war-crimes-lawsuit-against-nato-1.366650

[bemildred]

1. Former French FM says prepared to defend Gadhafi at international court

Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas visited Libya as a lawyer to prepare a legal case on behalf of victims of NATO bombing and said he was prepared to defend leader Muammar Gadhafi if he is sent to The Hague.

Dumas, who served as foreign minister under socialist President Francois Mitterrand, said he had seen several civilian victims of NATO bombing in a hospital and had been told by a doctor there that there were as many as 20,000 more.

NATO says it has struck only military targets. Despite repeated promises by Gadhafi's media officials, Western journalists based in Tripoli have been shown no evidence of large numbers of civilians killed or injured by NATO bombing.

"This is brutal, brutal aggression against a sovereign country," Dumas told a news conference in a Tripoli luxury hotel on Sunday, attended by people introduced as family members and supporters of relatives of civilian casualties.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/mideast-in-turmoil/former-french-fm-says-prepared-to-defend-gadhafi-at-international-court-1.364942

[The Magistrate]

2. This Will Go About As Far As The FilingsAgainst Sharon, Sir

[bemildred]

3. "The Play's the Thing", Sir.

Hamlet:

I'll have grounds
More relative than this—the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

---

You are right, this won't go far as a legal issue. But you know I love a good show.

[The Doctor.]

4. No irony here at all.

:eyes:

Didn't have a problem with all the people your dad killed, did you Ms. Gaddafi? How many times you file against him?

[kelly1mm]

6. Is it possible for both sides to have committed war crimes? nt

[dipsydoodle]

7. Its already recognised that both sides have.

.

[gratuitous]

5. We'll see if the world adopts the U.S. standard

Our legal standard now being "close enough," rather than all that messy fooling around with "evidence" and "due process," as long as enough people agree that the aggrieved party was very, very bad, anything we do is "close enough" and totally excusable. Will the rest of the world adopt this standard? I suppose we ought to get around to defining who is "very, very bad," but that could lead to messy complications as well. Probably best to just leave it on a post hoc rationalization basis. That way we can kill anyone we want, and as long as we can persuade enough people that the victim was very, very bad, it's okay.