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French prosecutor drops complaint against Israeli dual national accused of crimes in Gaza
Anti-terrorism judge dismisses allegations of torture and barbarism committed by French-Israeli soldier based on insufficient evidence
French prosecutors have dismissed a complaint from a group of NGOs alleging that a French-Israeli soldier committed crimes of torture and barbarism during the war in Gaza, according to a report in AFP on Tuesday.
France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) closed the complaint on 2 September, according to a judicial source cited by AFP.
The allegations were based on a video, dated January but shared on social media in March, purportedly posted by the soldier in question. It shows Israeli soldiers making Palestinian detainees - believed to have been kidnapped in Gaza - get off a truck. The Palestinians are dressed in white jumpsuits and blindfolded.
The person filming the video can be heard insulting the detainees in French, calling them "fuckers", "sons of bitches", "motherfuckers" and a "bunch of bitches".
"You saw those little sons of bitches there, look, he pissed himself," the French-speaking man says, adding: "Look, I’m going to show you his back, you’ll laugh. Look, they tortured him to make him talk. You were happy on 7 October [day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel], you sons of bitches."
Three NGOs, the Belgian association March 30 Movement, the French Justice and Rights Without Borders (JDSF) and Al Jaliya Union of Palestinian Association in France, filed a complaint in April stating that the video showed complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to the judicial source, the complaint was dismissed due to facts being "insufficiently characterised", and supporting evidence "not being sufficient to establish the existence of possible material acts of complicity".
Gilles Devers, one of the claimants' lawyers, told Middle East Eye in June that the soldier who filmed the video was not only guilty of apology for torture, but of psychological torture by inflicting, through insults and degrading words, inhuman and bestial treatment on prisoners.
"International law considers physical torture on an equal footing with other acts that place individuals in a position of inferiority," Devers said.
On Tuesday, the NGOs' lawyers told AFP: "We are astonished to learn of this dismissal, even though the complaint included all the elements to open an investigation. We will request access to the file to understand.
"With this decision, the PNAT shows a desire not to shed light on the involvement, in Gaza, of dual nationals in war crimes... This desire can only be political," the lawyers added.
For months, French campaigners have lobbied the government to take action over the presence of over 4,000 French or French-Israeli nationals fighting in Gaza since October.
The French government first dodged the issue, stating that France would not investigate its nationals enlisted in the Israeli army because "dual nationality is a double allegiance".
Then, on 21 March, when asked if authorities were planning to carry out investigations into French-Israeli soldiers potentially guilty of war crimes in Gaza, the deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lemoine, acknowledged that "French justice is competent to recognise crimes committed by French nationals abroad, including in the context of the current conflict".
Under the penal code, French citizens who are responsible for crimes or offences abroad can be prosecuted.
In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights rendered several judgments considering that the French public prosecutor is not independent of the executive power.
Prosecutors in France are currently appointed by the Council of Ministers and dismissible by the government. They may also receive instructions from the Ministry of Justice.
(c) 2024, Middle East Eye
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