Spanish court shelves complaint against Netanyahu over detention of Spanish UN soldier in Lebanon
Spain's National Court has provisionally dismissed a complaint against Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli commanders because a UN investigation and Israeli inquiries into the April detention are already under way.
The ruling
Judge Antonio Piña of Spain's Audiencia Nacional, the National Court, has provisionally dismissed (sobreseimiento provisional) a complaint against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several Israeli military commanders over the detention of a Spanish UNIFIL soldier in Lebanon. The decision was set out in a written order, and it follows the position taken by the prosecutors. The order can be challenged, and the judge has left room to reopen the case if new facts emerge.
Why the judge stepped back
The order relies on Spanish law, under which Spanish courts lack jurisdiction when a procedure is already open before an international tribunal, or when the offence was committed in a state where the accused is a national, unless that state is unwilling or unable to investigate. Piña found those conditions were met, at least provisionally. The UN Office of Legal Affairs told the court that the facts had been formally reported to the organization, that UNIFIL had passed them on to the Israeli authorities, and that the UN had opened an internal investigation. Israeli authorities are also investigating. In the order, the judge wrote:
There is no data, however, that allows us to affirm the inactivity of those authorities or the current need for a subsidiary intervention by Spanish jurisdiction.
The incident and the complaint
On 7 April, Israeli forces stopped a UN logistics convoy carrying food and other supplies to the Indonesian contingent at the border position, and held the Spanish soldier, according to the complaint, for 'less than an hour'. Defence Minister Margarita Robles later confirmed the soldier's nationality and the detention. The Foreign Ministry then summoned Dana Erlich, the chargé d'affaires at Israel's embassy in Madrid, to protest the detention.
- Israeli forces stop a UN convoy and hold a Spanish UNIFIL soldier for under an hour
- At the prosecutors' request, the judge asks the UN whether it has opened an investigation
- Judge Antonio Piña orders the provisional dismissal of the complaint
Iustitia Europa, a party that El País describes as extraparliamentary, filed the complaint against Netanyahu and Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, as well as the commander of the Northern Command. The complaint cited coercion, illegal detention and war crimes, and called the episode a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international humanitarian law.
What happens next
In May, at the prosecutors' request, the judge asked the UN whether it had opened an investigation, and the UN's reply became the basis for the decision. Parties have three days to seek reconsideration (recurso de reforma) and five days to file an appeal (recurso de apelación). The judge noted that the case could be reopened if there were a substantial change in the ongoing investigations or if new relevant elements appeared.
