These are not arrest warrants, but it is a scathing press release issued on Friday May 3 by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In this text, Karim Khan asks that “all attempts to obstruct, intimidate or influence” the employees of his office “stop immediately”. The admonition targets the Israeli prime minister and his allies. Worried that the Court will place several senior officials of the Hebrew State under arrest warrant, including potentially himself, Benjamin Netanyahu has been urging his Western partners for several days to exert pressure on the institution.
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Referring to threats against it and its officials, the prosecutor’s office reports that, “even without follow-up, [les menaces] may constitute an offense against the administration of justice.. The ICC criminal code “prohibits intimidation and influence peddling, whether through coercion or persuasion”, further explains the press release. Obstruction of justice is punishable by the Court with a sentence of five years’ imprisonment accompanied by a fine. From a good Source, it is specified that the prosecutor must very soon submit his requests for an arrest warrant to the judges’ office. This step was initially planned for this week, but it was postponed. The three judges will have to examine the evidence attached to the file before validating or rejecting the requests.
On April 16, according to Israeli television, Benjamin Netanyahu organized an emergency meeting aimed at countering the risk of issuing mandates. Friday April 26, on the social network “moral and legal bankruptcy” and D’“anti-Semitism”on the grounds that it did not open an investigation into the crimes committed by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, a territory over which the Court does not have jurisdiction.
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The Israeli Prime Minister had already made these accusations in 2021, when the institution opened an investigation into the crimes committed by Israel in the occupied territories since 2014. The procedure includes the attacks perpetrated by Hamas in the south of Israel, the October 7, 2023, and the offensive launched in retaliation by the Jewish state against the Gaza Strip.
“Solid” magistrates
Since the first attempt by the Palestinian Authority to seize the Court in 2009, Israel has used the same political, economic and security levers to keep the magistrates in The Hague at bay. In recent days, Mr. Netanyahu, according to the Israeli press, telephoned several of Israel’s allies, such as Austria and the Czech Republic, who had opposed “the State of Palestine” become a member of the ICC in 2015. The Prime Minister wants to convince the States parties to the Court to stop funding it if it issues warrants. In Washington, American senators are working on possible retaliatory measures.
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