News In Focus
3 August 2006
Anwar launches legal bid to stop bomb flights
The human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar is planning legal action to stop UK airports and military bases being used for US bomb flights to Israel.
The solicitor says he is acting on behalf of Lebanese clients. On its news website today, the BBC has said that such flights are to be restricted to British military airfields, rather than commercial airports in the future. Mr Anwar said he has not seen any official statements regarding that issue.
Mr Anwar said using Scottish airports and military bases was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and international law. He believes that if arms flights are wrong for UK airports, then they are also wrong for UK military airbases.
He said one of the options he was considering was taking legal action to stop American or Israeli planes landing at Prestwick and that he may ask the Lord Advocate and police to investigate the issue.
Mr Anwar pointed out that under the Geneva Convention, aiding and abetting anyone to carry out war crimes meant you were also complicit in war crimes.