Israel is not juridically stopped from the right to try Adolf Eichmann, just because the ex-Nazi was brought to Israel “by irregular means,” the Guardian of Manchester declared today. In an article by the newspaper’s legal correspondent, Israel’s right to try the former Gestapo colonel, charged with the annihilation of 6,000,000 Jews, was analyzed and upheld on the basis of law.
According to the Guardian, the Supreme Court of Palestine, as it was constituted under the British mandate, held in 1942 that “where a fugitive was brought back by kidnaping or by any irregular means,” he was “nevertheless answerable for his crimes.” In the face of pleas that “a breach of international law” deprives the Israeli court trying Eichmann of jurisdiction, the Guardian stated: “The Israeli courts, like those in England, are bound by the law.”
The newspaper’s legal correspondents also discussed the issue which has been raised by some people who say that Israel is invoking “retroactive law” by trying Eichmann under laws passed by Israel in 1950, after the Nazi holocaust had ended. “This” stated the report, “may shock those who recognize the rules of civilized nations. But this is to resuscitate the argument that bedeviled discussions at the time of the Nuremberg trials. Retroactivity in criminal legislation is justified when the crime is genocide or something in the nature of a war crime.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
