On April 2, 2009, the Spanish prosecutors submitted a request with a Madrid court asking to halt the investigation in the Shehadeh case. The prosecutors' position was that the Spanish universal jurisdiction can be apply only upon the inexistence of any judicial investigative proceeding for the matters complained of in Israeli territory. Therefore, the probe should be dismissed due to a parallel investigation by Israel.[4]
However, on May 4, 2009, Judge Andreu held that no such criminal investigation was being conducted and declared, moreover, that even if such an investigation was underway, the Spanish judiciary could simultaneously investigate the incident since it could be classified as a war crime.[5]
On May 6, 2009, the Spanish prosecutors appealed Judge Andreu's decision and requested to revoke the investigation[6] emphasizing the fact that Israel has the closest jurisdictional link to the events and therefore must have preference and priority over the jurisdiction of Spain and any other State without links to the events or parties affected.[7] Moreover, the prosecutors disagreed with Judge Andreu's opinion about the nature of the investigation being conducted in Israel. The prosecutors said that the investigation was initiated as a result of a judicial order by the Israeli Supreme Court, and since it can issue operative conclusions and determine whether there are grounds to find that a crime had been committed, it is clearly a judicial investigation.[8]
On May 20, 2009, the Spanish government proposed new legislation that would limit the universal jurisdiction of the Spanish courts to cases involving offences which have a direct connection to Spain.[9] It is unclear however, how such legislation would affect ongoing proceedings such as those pending in the Shehadeh case.