The POWs case is back

This is my first post in 2011 . It is my first post after the Jan25th Revolution in Egypt , it is my first post after ousting Hosni Mubarak , the same man who ignored for 30 years the rights of our Egyptian POWs.

I wanted to write here during the revolution to show to the whole world how the former ousted president had no friend in the world  except the same man who killed our POWs in 1967 : Binyamin Ben Eliezer !! During the climax of the revolution last February almost all the leaders of the world did not talk to Mubarak and he did not dare to call them except Ben Eliezer !!

Mubarak and Ben Elizar
Old buddies !!

It is enough that his last call before stepping down was to Ben Eliezer !! Some will not like what I will say but how come Mubarak was an officer in the Egyptian army and headed our air forces once upon time !! Ben Eliezer killed our unarmed Egyptian POWs in 1967 and he does not deny it for God sake yet they seemed to be close friends to the level that Mubarak spoke to Ben Eliezer for 20 minutes in his last international call as a president !!

Anyhow Ben Eliezer can feel very sad for Mubarak but he has to be worried now because the Egyptian POWs case seemed to be revived again by the Egyptian revolution.

The Egyptian Arabic socialist party has demanded PM Sharaf and the supreme council of armed forces to implement the administrative court rule to demand a UN and security council investigation concerning the Israeli war crimes against our POWs during the Suez war , the six days war and 1973 war.

FM Nabil El-Araby has announced that Egypt is going to join the ICC at last , this great news means we can sue Israel in front of the ICC.

Despite we are busy in our revolution that has not finished yet , we have forgotten the rights of our fallen soldiers , Ben Eliezer should be very worried.

Egypt to join the ICC ??

I read in the newspaper last week that Egypt will join the ICC at its next meeting on the 29th – 30th March 2009. I do not know about this and whether it is true or not. Egypt did not sign the ICC for fear its regime would face charges for violating human rights.

I follow the matter because it is very important news , I doubt it is true after all if Egypt joins the ICC ,the regime will be sued for several cases internationally

We can sue Israel abroad without the approval of the Egyptian government

I made a quick interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery on my Egyptian Chronicles blog and I did not forget to ask about the POWs case.

Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery took this stand this year to sue the Egyptian government in the court for exporting the Egyptian Natural gas to Israel despite the huge public refusal. Ambassador Youssery is a retired Ambassador since 1995 and currently work as international law lawyer. Already I should mentioned that he headed for three years as Head of the Egyptian Government committee for the revision of bilateral and multilateral treaties and the Deputy chief of the Egyptian delegation in the negotiation concerning the execution of the Taba award.

I asked him in the interview about several issues current causing buzz in Egypt whether from the exportation of the natural gas to Israel or the Salam 98 Ferry or the Um Rashrash case or the POWs Case. I asked him about the Egyptian POWs Case because I know from his long international legal expertise we can benefit.

Already my main question to him was about the possibility of suing Israel outside Egypt in international courts whether the ICC or the IJC

Here are the questions concerning the POWs

EC :The Egyptian POWs case is from the most important neglected cases in Egypt, as international law expert; can we go to the IJC or the ICC to sue Israel as citizens not as a state??

IY : We can peruse this matter by bringing it to international courts. There are some technical difficulties to engage the ICC, but the IJC has no jurisdiction here. I agree fully that the Egyptian POWs case is one of the most important neglected cases in Egypt. But we can always engage the Israeli criminals before any court (Pinochet , Mengistu, Sharon cases)

EC: Do we need the approval of the Egyptian state??

IY: We do not need the approval of the Egyptian state.

EC: Can the ICC investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State??

IY: Yes the ICC can investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State.

EC :If we go there, are the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai are enough to support our case and open an international investigation for War crimes, especially that there are some Israelis who confirmed our stories??

IY : Yes, the court can accept the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai.

EC: Why do you think the Egyptian government refuse to take it seriously despite it is a win case??

IY : The Egyptian government refuses to take it seriously despite it is a win case, because they don’t care a bit about people and they can not stand any American pressure.

As you can see we can sue Israel abroad in front of the ICC without the approval of the Egyptian State and we can win it with the testimonies of the witnesses and the evidence represented in the mass graves of our troops across Sinai

You can read the rest of the interview here folks