Netanyahu aide threatened with arrest

JERUSALEM, May 5 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's military attache was unable to accompany him on his trip to Britain for fears of being arrested, Channel One reported.

Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was warned that since the British law had not been changed he could be detained on landing in England on allegations of war crimes human rights groups have accused Israel of committing in Operation Cast Lead -- the three week offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 to January 2009, Channel One reported late Wednesday.

Locker served as deputy head of the Israeli air force during the Gaza offensive.

Israeli experts in international law have advised senior government and military officials to refrain from visiting Britain, Spain, Belgium or Norway because they risk being arrested on charges of alleged war crimes through universal jurisdiction laws.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni was forced to cancel a trip to England in December 2009 after an arrest warrant was issued in her name for the role she played during the Gaza offensive as foreign minister in the former government that endorsed the military offensive.

At the time British foreign secretary David Miliband expressed "shock" at the warrant, and promised to work immediately to ensure that a similar occurrence would not happen in the future against any Israeli official, The Jerusalem Post said.

A statement released by Miliband at the time said "the procedure by which arrest warrants can be sought and issued -- without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor -- is an unusual feature of the system in England and Wales," the Post said.