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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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3 August 2006

PRESS RELEASE: IHRC Commences Legal Proceedings against British Government over Military Shipments to Israel

Following many complaints that we have received from British citizens whose family members are in Lebanon and facing grave danger as well as acts of terror, the Islamic Human Rights Commission has decided to issue proceedings in the Royal Courts of Justice against the Civil Aviation Authority, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as well as the Secretary of State for Defence, to prevent them from their continued acts of aiding and abetting grave and serious violations of International Humanitarian Law and crimes against the Geneva Conventions that are continuing in the Republic of Lebanon.

It is unfortunate that our parliament as well as other members of the Cabinet and the relevant members of the government departments that are parties to this action have continued to ignore the anger and the will of the British public and have given the impression that they are willing participants in the war crimes that have taken place in the Republic of Lebanon.

Chair of IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh stated:

“Rather than preventing the shipments of military hardware, ammunition, and munitions from the US to the State of Israel, the UK government has ignored its own policy and guidelines on the export of such materials to areas where they are likely to prolong an already bloody conflict.”

“The action undertaken by us is an attempt to force the relevant public authorities to respect the law as they know parliament has laid down for all UK citizens to respect and follow but which our government refuses to abide by. We hope that the independent court will finally uphold the will of parliament and enforce the law.”

For more information please contact (+44) 20 8904 4222, or (44) 7958 522196 or email:info@ihrc.org.[ ENDS ]

Islamic Human Rights Commission

PO Box 598

Wembley

HA9 7XH

United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222

Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183

Email: info@ihrc.org

Web: www.ihrc.org

info@ihrc.org