Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen lobbied to pressure the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to refrain from opening an investigation against Israel, according to a report from The Guardian.
The newspaper, known for its anti-Israel reporting, claimed that Cohen initiated a plan to influence prosecutor Fatou Bensouda before she decided in 2021 to investigate Israel for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestinian-controlled territories.
The Guardian cited various sources alleging that Cohen threatened Bensouda during closed meetings prior to her decision. The investigation, opened three years ago, led the current ICC prosecutor, Kareem Khan, to request arrest warrants for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Several sources told the newspaper that Bensouda had informed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to dissuade her from launching the investigation, and had claimed to feel threatened by his actions. An Israeli source mentioned that Cohen acted with the government’s authority and approval, explaining that the ICC had repeatedly threatened to indict senior Israeli officials.
Last week, Attorney General Gali Beharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amir Ohana responded negatively to the ICC’s request to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. “The request for the issuance of arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister is devoid of any basis,” they said in a joint announcement.
They added, “The State of Israel is a democratic state, which is fighting terrorism and defending its security while adhering to the binding legal rules and out of a deep commitment to the law. The security forces, and the IDF in particular, are fighting with a full commitment to the rules of international law.”
“The Israeli legal system is equipped to examine any serious claim, both with regard to matters of policy and with regard to individual cases. As the State of Israel has made clear over the years, the ICC lacks any authority to conduct an investigation into the matter,” they concluded.
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2 Responses
Oh, of course, the mossad has what they can threaten ICC prosecutors with and when they do so you only hear about three years later when the ICC is actually prosecuting them. The “several sources” who is safe it is safe to assume contains plenty of Israel haters among them only found their voices now
smerel:
Of course, the Zionist heretics would never do anything like that – no, of course not – like they did to a Jew, Mr. DeHaan HY”D and even to their own Zionists like Mr. Arlosoroff. At least they named a street after the latter.