The Spanish government has announced plans to amend its laws to make it harder for Spanish judges to investigate torture and war crimes committed outside of Spain. In recent years, Spanish courts have investigated several prominent cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 1998, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London under an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who sought to extradite him to Spain for trial. The Spanish government’s decision comes days after a Spanish judge launched an investigation into seven current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed a top Hamas leader, Salah Shehadeh, and fourteen other people, including nine children. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni praised Spain’s decision.

Tzipi Livni: “I was just told by the Spanish foreign minister that Spain decided to change the legislation in accordance to the universal jurisdiction in order to change the possibility of different organization, political organization, to abuse the legal system in Spain in order to put charges against Israelis and others that are fighting terror. I think that this is a very important news, and I hope that other states in Europe will do the same and will follow this.”