British police 'failed to arrest wanted Israeli general'
Police failed to board the plane over concerns of an armed stand-off
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Tuesday, 19, Feb 2008 12:47
British police failed to arrest an Israeli general wanted for alleged war crimes, the BBC has alleged.
After being tipped off about plans to arrest him upon landing at Heathrow airport in September 2005, Major General Doron Almog refused to leave a plane for two hours before returning to Israel.
The general had been travelling to the UK for Jewish social and charitable events when he was alerted, apparently by the Israeli embassy, that an arrest warrant had been issued for him.
According to a police log obtained by the BBC, officers had planned on detaining Mr Almog at immigration control in Heathrow before taking him to a police station to decide on whether to make a formal arrest.
John MacBrayne, the officer in charge of the operation, noted in the log he had been unable to board the El Al plane on the runway, after the Israeli general refused to disembark.
"There was no intelligence as to whether Mr Almog would have been travelling with personal security as befitted his status, armed or otherwise", Mr MacBrayne said.
He wrote that there were concerns that El Al flights carried armed air marshals and of the international fallout of "a potentially armed police operation at an airport".
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said in a statement responding to the allegations: "The IPCC has concluded its investigation into a complaint arising from the failure by police to execute an arrest warrant for war crimes in respect of retired Israeli general, Doron Almog, on September 11th 2005.
"The IPPC found no evidence of any police officers or member of police staff improperly disclosing information with regard to executing the warrant," the statement said.
It concluded there had been no breach of codes of conduct by officers failing to enter the plane to issue the arrest warrant.
The BBC reports that upon the general's return to Israel foreign minister Silvan Shalom declared the episode an "outrage".
Jack Straw, the then British foreign secretary, was subsequently forced to apologise.