Israeli campaign against ICC may be âcrimes against justiceâ, say legal experts | Israel![]() Efforts by Israelâs intelligence agencies to undermine and influence the international criminal court (ICC) could amount to âoffences against the administration of justiceâ and should be investigated by its chief prosecutor, legal experts have said. Responding to revelations about Israeli surveillance and espionage operations against the ICC, multiple leading international law experts said the conduct of Israeli intelligence services could amount to criminal offences. The disclosures about Israelâs nine-year campaign against the court were published on Tuesday as part of a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. It details how the countryâs intelligence agencies were deployed to surveil, hack, put pressure on, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff. The ICCâs prosecutor, Karim Khan, last week announced he was seeking arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity for Hamas and Israeli leaders. The decision to seek warrants against Israelâs prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, were the first time an ICC prosecutor had taken action against the leaders of a close western ally. Before Tuesdayâs revelations, Khan had alleged that unspecified attempts to âimpede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this courtâ had already been made by unnamed parties. Such conduct could constitute a criminal offence under article 70 of the courtâs founding statute relating to the administration of justice. Toby Cadman, a British barrister specialising in international criminal and humanitarian law, said the Guardianâs findings were âdeeply disturbingâ and include allegations that âconstitute an attempt to pervert the course of justice through the use of threatsâ to the former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. âIt is quite clear that these are matters that fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC, in particular under article 70 of the statute. Any person who has attempted to obstruct the independent investigations of the prosecutor must face the consequences,â Cadman said. Longtime observers of the ICC said Israelâs actions warranted further investigation. Matt Cannock, the head of Amnesty Internationalâs centre for international justice in The Hague, said: âIt is abundantly clear that many of the examples highlighted in the reporting would amount to [article 70 offences]. Such charges should be brought against anyone who has sought to impede, intimidate or corruptly influence the ICCâs officials.â Another ICC expert, Mark Kersten, an assistant professor in criminal law at the University of the Fraser Valley in Canada, said: âIt is hard to imagine what could be a more blatant attempt to wrongfully interfere in a prosecutorial process.â A spokesperson for Netanyahuâs office said the Guardianâs questions and requests for comment were âreplete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israelâ. Washington, alongside the British and German governments, has opposed Khanâs decision to seek arrest warrants for Israelâs leaders. Some Republican members of the US Congress have called for sanctions to be imposed against the ICC in response, but the White House said on Tuesday it would not do so. Like Israel, the US is not a member of the court. On Tuesday, the US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said he had read the Guardian report and that the US opposes âthreats or intimidationâ against members of the international criminal court. âI donât want to speak to hypotheticals about what the United States may or may not do,â he said. âBut of course we would oppose threats or intimidation against any public official.â The ICCâs 124 member states must act on the findings to send a clear message to actors attempting to sabotage the courtâs work, several experts said. Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rightsâs representative to the ICC, said: âThese allegations should be a wake-up call for the state parties to whatâs at stake. They need to rally together and support the court that they built. âTo maintain the international justice system, it needs to be protected from threats, especially egregious threats against those given the huge responsibility of working for all of us to prosecute the worst crimes known to humanity.â A senior Palestinian official, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely, said: âTactics that have been used against Palestinians living under occupation have now been used against international officials from some of the worldâs most important institutions. This investigation shows that Israelâs belief in its impunity now goes beyond Palestineâs borders. âThe international community now has two options. Either change course and protect international law and international institutions, or destroy the rules-based order for the sake of defending Israel.â Adil Haque, a law professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said that as article 70 offences carry a five-year statute of limitations, the prosecutorâs office should move quickly if it wishes to investigate and that member states should offer their assistance. âThis is the behaviour of a crime family, not the conduct of a state, and member states should say so,â Haque said. Asked whether the prosecutor was considering article 70 investigations in light of the Guardianâs disclosures, a spokesperson for Khanâs office said they could not comment further beyond warnings Khan made this month that âall attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediatelyâ. The Guardian investigation comes after a bruising week for Israel on the international stage. The unprecedented decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant was followed on Friday by a ruling from the international court of justice, which arbitrates disputes between countries, ordered a halt to Israelâs devastating offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. In the same week, Ireland, Norway and Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state. Israel responded by recalling its ambassadors from Dublin, Madrid and Oslo, and withholding tax revenues from the West Bankâs semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamasâ assault on 7 October, with a further 250 taken hostage, and about 35,000 people have been killed by Israel in the ensuing war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. A hostage and prisoner release deal in November collapsed after a week, and ceasefire negotiations since have repeatedly foundered. Source link Posted: 2024-05-29 18:21:53 |
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