950819

$100m suit filed

against Rabin for killing

of POWs

CAIRO: An Egyptian lawyer has filed a 100 million dollar suit against Israeli leaders for families of Egyptian Prisoners of War killed by the Israeli army during the 1956 Suez War, legal sources said on Friday.

A court in the northern coastal city of Alexandria will begin hearing the case raised by Mohammad al-Shami on October 28, the sources said.

In his suit, Shami demanded Israeli leaders, notably Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, pay 100 million dollars in damages to families of Egyptian prisoners of war reported to have been massacred by the Israeli army during the October 1956 war.

It was unclear if Shami had been hired by the families to file the suit.

Rabin has denounced the killings of Egyptian prisoners during the war, but refused to condemn the soldiers who committed them.

Retired Israeli General Arieh Biro admitted in early August that he fired upon 40-49 Egyptian POWs in 1956 because his beseiged unit did not have enough men to guard them.

The legal sources did not say if the suit also listed as plaintiffs the commanders of Biro's batallion, Raphael Eytan - now head of the rightwing Tzomet party - and Ariel Sharon, a prominent member of parliament.

Egypt, which has received from Israel a preliminary report investigating the massacre, called on Israeli leaders to "determine responsibility for these crimes" and give an exact number of Egyptian POWs killed.

An Egyptian court has been hearing since July 24 another case against Rabin filed by a Libyan, Mohammad Bussir.

Bussir demands 30 million dollars from Rabin in damages, accusing Israel of killing his father, Libyan foreign minister Salah Bussir, when it shot down a Libyan civilian jet over Sinai on February 21, 1972.

He also wants the Israeli officials responsible for the attack on the aircraft extradited. The Cairo court of appeals will continue viewing his case on November 29.-AFP