June 3, 2005 - 08:04 AMT
BELGIAN SENATE PUT OFF DISCUSSION OF BILL ON RESPONSIBILITY FOR GENOCIDE DENIAL
The Justice Committee of the Belgian Senate decided to postpone the discussion of bill calling for criminal responsibility for the Armenian Genocide denial. According to a report of Turkish Daily News, during the Wednesday meeting the majority of the Committee members stated that it should not be politicians to decide "whether the mass killings of Armenians at the beginning of the 20-th century can be defined as genocide." "The Belgian Senate is not the place to discuss issues of the kind and take decisions", Committee member Fatma Pehlivan stated. To remind, the bill adopted by the Belgian Chamber of Representatives calls for deprivation of liberty with the term of 8 days up to one year or penalty starting with 26 Euros up to 5000 Euros, RFE/RL reported.