Avoiding Arrest - A Practical Guide

Generally speaking, if a UK court issues an arrest warrant, the subject of that warrant will find themselves enjoying the warm hospitality of his/her local police force...

Thus when a UK District Judge authorised the arrest of Israeli General Doron Almog for breaches of the Geneva Convention in the occupied territories (a criminal offence under the Geneva Convention Acts 1957), and his plane landed at Heathrow, one would expect the Met's finest to appear...

Instead, El Al staff whispered at the General to hang on - the next thing is the Israeli Military Attache turns up (how/why he was allowed through the security at Heathrow is unclear) and advises him to hot-foot it back to Israel as he is about to be arrested...as sure as night follows day the plane takes off into the sunset.

Safe back in Tel Aviv, General Almog issues a statement saying he has done nothing wrong; later a "former" legal adviser to the Israeli embassy comments :

"Courts in organised countries do not act on malicious litigation and this was definitely malicious litigation."

Flattered as I am that he considers my country "organised" (presumably he was paid enough money to not have to take public transport anywhere), it is frankly not for a foreign embassy to

a) help its citizens avoid criminal proceedings in the host country (this is in all likelihood a criminal offence under UK law and, while the attache will have diplomatic immunity from prosecution, we tend to invite diplomats who break the law to bugger off post haste)...

b) make judgements about what is, or is not, a mallicious prosecution; this is for the judge and jury to decide; if the General really did do what was necessary to combat terrorism (as he claimed in a statement), he can expect to be acquitted - amazingly enough, we understand terrorism in this country having just lost over 50 people in a series of horrific bombings.