ISRAEL - July 25 - Danish Retreat On Threat To Envoy.

Danish FM Mogens Lykketoft backs down on threats to arrest Carmi Gillon, the former head of the secret service Shin Bet, who is expected to arrive in Copenhagen to take up his position as ambassador next month. His nomination provoked a storm of protest in Denmark and among international human rights groups because of Gillon's admission that he had authorised the torture of Arab suspects. This was exacerbated when he told the Danish press he was in favour of using "moderate physical pressure" on Palestinian suspects during the current troubles in Israel. Lykketoft says the decision on who to send as its ambassador to Denmark was Israel's and Denmark approved Gillon's credentials. (But the publication of parts of a written reply to a parliamentary question by Frank Jensen, the justice minister, appears to indicate that under the UN torture convention Denmark would be obliged to arrest Gillon. This prompted an angry response from Israel with the country's foreign minister saying it had no intention of replacing Gillon as its proposed ambassador in Denmark. Denmark's threats against Gillon were seen by the Israeli government as further evidence of anti-Israeli bias within Europe. PM Sharon recently excluded Belgium from a tour of Europe after a legal case brought there relating to his role in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. FM Peres described Gillon as a "real proponent of peace". Gillon quitted as head of Shin Bet in 1996 in the wake of the assassination of the previous November of PM Rabin, which exposed serious breaches in its protection of senior politicians). In its statement, the Danish Justice Ministry says Vienna convention rules that grant diplomatic status have priority over the general rules of the UN torture convention.