Posted on 04/28/2004 1:33:07 PM PDT by yonif
PARIS - French prosecutors opened an inquiry after relatives of Jewish victims of attacks in Israel filed a complaint against Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat accusing him of genocide, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
The seven Jewish plaintiffs, who are French but live in Israel, filed their complaint in March 2003, accusing Arafat of masterminding attacks against Jews to back Palestinian demands for an independent state.
Their complaint accuses the Palestinian leader of genocide, crimes against humanity, murder and criminal conspiracy.
Paris prosecutors, who opened the inquiry on Tuesday, were keeping Arafat out of legal proceedings for now, judicial sources said. They also limited the case to "assassinations and criminal conspiracy" in relation to a terrorist organization.
In keeping with French legal practice which aims to keep from directly implicating anyone at this stage, the investigation was launched against "X" - or unknown persons.
The suit is one of a handful filed against foreign leaders in French courts. Under French law, heads of state enjoy immunity from prosecution as long as they are in power.
Arafat was elected Palestinian Authority chairman in West Bank and Gaza elections in 1996.
But lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Arafat was not legally head of state and would therefore not be covered by the law on immunity, a judiciary official said.
All plaintiffs are relatives of victims of a wave of attacks, including suicide bombings, committed in Israel between 1999 and 2002.
Their lawyers say that as Jews, they considered themselves victims of "a concerted plan aimed at the partial destruction of a racial or religious group, which constitutes a genocide."
They allege the plan was hatched by the Palestinian Authority, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah and other groups suspected of having links with Arafat, such as the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
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