Spain: Prosecutors Ask to Drop Probe of Israeli Bombing
(IsraelNN.com) Spanish prosecutors filed a request Thursday with a Madrid court asking to halt a probe of Israel's 2002 assassination of arch-terrorist Salah Shehadeh in Gaza City. Prosecutors argued that the probe should be frozen due to the existence of a similar Israeli investigation.
Judge Fernando Andreu said in January that he was willing to open a probe in part because Israel had not provided information on the bombing.
The court opened a probe in January targeting seven senior Israeli defense and political figures involved in the assassination. The seven were suspected of war crimes due to the deaths of several bystanders in the blast.
Israeli figures under suspicion in the investigation included former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, then-Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, former Shin Bet Israel Security Agency head Avi Dichter, and former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon.
Andreu has not yet issued an arrest warrant for the seven. If he does, they could be arrested upon entering any European Union state.
Spanish law allows the country's courts to hear cases that took place abroad and did not involve Spanish citizens under certain conditions. In light of the uproar caused by the current case, Spain is reportedly considering limiting the authority of its courts in international cases.
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