Journalist attempts citizen's arrest of Blair in EU parliament http://euobserver.com/9/29739

A Brussels reporter attempted to place Tony Blair under a citizen's arrest on Monday (22 March) for his role in the invasion of Iraq, during a visit by the former UK prime minister to the European Parliament for a hearing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.On the seventh anniversary of the invasion almost to the day, late afternoon, David Cronin, an Irish journalist with the Inter Press Service news agency and a regular writer on European Union affairs for The Guardian, the British centre-left daily, approached Mr Blair, as he was due to discuss with MEPs his current work as a Middle East special envoy.

Placing his hand on the former prime minister's arm, Mr Cronin said: "Mr Blair, this is a citizens' arrest."The ex-Labour leader, in the parliament to speak as the special representative of the Quartet - the EU, US, Russia and the UN - momentarily flinched, but the 38-year-old reporter was quickly pushed away by a bodyguard."You are guilty of war crimes," he said, intending to invite Mr Blair to accompany him to the nearest police station to be charged with committing a "a war of aggression"

- a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense - in breach of customary international law, specifically the Nuremberg Principles under the rubric of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, the legal body that exercises jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.Both Belgium and the UK have ratified the Rome Statute, although all parties to the text have yet to adopt a definition of the crime of aggression. The parties are due to hold a review conference in the first half of 2010 where a definition is expected to be agreed.