An Israeli general wanted for alleged war crimes escaped arrest in the UK because police officers feared an armed confrontation with the airline’s armed air marshals.

Documents detailing why the Metropolitan Police failed to act in their own jurisdiction, despite being in possession of a warrant, have emerged today.

They show that the police were unable to obtain advice as to their right to proceed and feared risks to the public if its officers boarded the plane as well as “the international impact of a potentially armed police operation at an airport”.

Major General Doron Almog had flown to the UK in September 2005 for social and charitable visits to Jewish communities in Solihull, in the West Midlands, and Manchester. The Metropolitan Police, acting to execute a warrant for his arrest issued a day earlier at Bow Street court, had arrived to meet him at the airport, hoping to detain the general at immigration control.

Major General Almog would later tell Israel Army Radio how he came to be tipped off about the impending arrest. “We were about to get off the plane, and then one of the stewards came up to me and said the pilot had asked me to disembark last.'' He waited, then he was told the Israeli military attaché was on his way. "I phoned him and he told me not to get off the plane.''

El Al, Israel’s national airline, refused permission for officers to board and the stand-off continued. For two hours the Metropolitan Police held back from boarding the plane, which then flew straight back to Israel, with Mr Almog and his wife on board. Their failure to arrest the general prompted anger from the lawyers who had obtained the warrant, acting on behalf of Palestinian campaigners, and calls for an investigation. A decisions log prepared for the Independent Police Complaints Commission and seen by the BBC now answers some of the questions that arose over the incident.

Palestinian campaigners had lobbied for the Metropolitan Police to act over allegations that the general had ordered the destruction of over 50 Palestinian homes in the Gaza strip, in retribution for a Palestinian militant attack. Lawyers argued that this contravened the laws of war protecting civilian property.

The Met refused to get involved, citing massive pressures on its counter-terrorism teams in the wake of the July 7 bombings, but the legal team successfully applied to a judge to obtain a warrant for a private prosecution.

Detective Superintendent John MacBrayne, a senior counter-terrorism officer, was in charge of the operation the day the general’s plane came in. As it parked for two hours on the runway, the Det Superint MacBrayne said he could not get confirmation that his team had the right to board the plane.

In his log, he reportedly wrote that as well as El Al refusing them permission to board: “Another consideration (was) that El Al flights carried armed air marshals, which raised issues around public safety.”

He added: “There was also no intelligence as to whether Mr Almog would have been travelling with personal security as befitted his status, armed or otherwise.”

All of these elements raised fears of an armed confrontation, despite the fact that “airside” areas are subject to the general law of the land and aircraft do not constitute the sovereign territory of the foreign nations from which they have arrived. Air marshals and private security guards would have had no right to intervene to prevent the apprehension of the general.

A spokesman for the Independent Police Commission said the review had shed no light on how the Israeli Embassy had learnt of the warrant. Suggestions that officials had been tipped off by the Foreign Office were denied at the time.

The review found that police had not broken rules by failing to board the aircraft to execute the warrant. Their failure to act certainly appears to have averted a major diplomatic incident. When the general arrived back in Israel, the country’s foreign minister Silvan Shalom described the incident as an “outrage”. The UK Foreign Secretary apologised to his counterpart for any embarrassment caused.

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