Efforts by Israel’s intelligence agencies to undermine and influence the international criminal court (ICC) could amount to “offences against the administration of justice” 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 Israel’s 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 country’s intelligence agencies were deployed to surveil, hack, put pressure on, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Efforts by Israel’s intelligence agencies to undermine and influence the international criminal court (ICC) could amount to “offences against the administration of justice” and should be investigated by its chief prosecutor, legal experts have said.
The disclosures about Israel’s 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.
Toby Cadman, a British barrister specialising in international criminal and humanitarian law, said the Guardian’s findings were “deeply disturbing” and include allegations that “constitute an attempt to pervert the course of justice through the use of threats” to the former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
Another ICC expert, Mark Kersten, an assistant professor in criminal law at the University of the Fraser Valley in Canada, said: “It is hard to imagine what could be a more blatant attempt to wrongfully interfere in a prosecutorial process.”
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 prosecutor’s office should move quickly if it wishes to investigate and that member states should offer their assistance.
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, ordering a halt to Israel’s devastating offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
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