A Belgian legal panel on Wednesday postponed hearings in a case charging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withgenocide.

The plaintiffs are survivors or families of victims of the hundreds of Palestinians massacred in the Sabra andShatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. They accuse Sharon of responsibility in massacres.

The suit against Sharon was brought under a 1993 Belgian law which allows war crimes, crimes against humanity andgenocide to be tried in Belgian courts, regardless of where the alleged crimes were committed, or the nationality orresidence of the victims and accused.

The hearing came a few months after a series of documents, including minutes of meetings between top ranking Israeliand Lebanese military officials, were anonymously delivered to the lawyers representing the Palestinians.

The lawyers say the documents provide watertight evidence that there was a conscious and effective chain of commandbetween the Israeli military and the rightwing Lebanese militia which carried out the slaughter.

Guest:

Chibli Mallat, one of the lawyers representing the Palestinians suing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonfor genocide.

Tape:

• Wadha Sabeq, survivor of the massacre who lost fifteen members of her family.

Related link:

• Chibli Mallat