Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes case: Report
Al Jazeera
Report claims ex-Mossad chief tried to pressure Fatou Bensouda into abandoning a 2021 war crimes probe.
The former chief of Mossad threatened the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor to try to get a 2021 war crimes probe dropped, a report has claimed.
Yossi Cohen, ex-chief of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency, threatened the ICC’s former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in a series of secret meetings, an investigation by The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday. The report tallies with others suggesting Israel and its main Western allies have sought to pressure international justice bodies.
Cohen’s covert contact to pressure Bensouda took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories, the report said, citing numerous anonymous sources.
Last week, Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, applied for an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu based on that probe launched in 2021.
Khan announced his office had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
