Livni given immunity to escape war crimes arrest in UK

Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was able to go ahead with a visit to London this week after being given temporary diplomatic immunity from being arrested war crimes, it has emerged. The Foreign Office intervened to declare that Livni was on a “special mission” to meet Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday while an application to arrest her under universal jurisdiction was being considered. The visit was the first test by an Israeli leader since the UK government last month amended the universal jurisdiction law to make war crime arrests more difficult by requiring the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The amendment comes after Livni was forced to cancel a visit to Britain in 2009, when an application for a private arrest warrant was successfully issued over her alleged role in the massacres of more than 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza. A new application for a warrant to arrest Livni, who was a member of Israel's war cabinet during the notorious Operation Cast Lead massacres, was made on Tuesday on behalf of a Palestinian whose brother was killed in the attacks. After initially announcing “no concluded view” had been reached, the state Crown Prosecution Service later revealed it had been served with a rare notice by Hague, declaring Livni had been given “special mission' immunity, which it could not challenge. The Foreign Office's intervention led human rights lawyer Daniel Machover, who made the application, to accuse Hague of blocking any arrest decision. 'The government has abused the law in order to ensure that Ms Livni escapes accountability. Ms Livni is not a member of the Israeli government, but the leader of the opposition,” Machover said. “This action exhibits a serious and worrying disregard for the rule of law, and appears to be in violation of the UK's international obligations,' he said. After the meeting, Hague blamed such applications of causing “an appalling situation when political abuse of our legal procedures prevented people like Ms Livni from travelling legitimately to the UK.” He confirmed the government had dealt with the issue “urgently as we promised to on coming to office” last year, when it made a pledge to Israel, but he denied war criminals were being allowed to escape prosecution in the UK. “The UK will continue to honor our international obligations and make sure that people who have committed some of the most awful crimes – wherever in the world they took place – can be brought to justice in our courts,' Hague said. Demonstrators later gathered outside Prime Minister David Cameron's Office to protest against a visit and demand that Livni be arrested.