Days after the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced that he had received threats, following his request to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a report by the British newspaper The Guardian revealed secrets about similar threats received by former International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. , by the former head of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, Yossi Cohen, over the course of several secret meetings during which he tried to pressure her to abandon the investigation into accusations of committing “war crimes.”
The report published by the British newspaper on Tuesday indicates that the secret communications conducted by Yossi Cohen with the former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court took place in the period preceding her decision to open an official investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report confirms that the investigation that began in 2021 reached its peak when Karim Khan – Bensouda’s successor – announced his decision to submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Gallant, along with three leaders of the “Hamas” movement, considering that this “What the Israeli military and political establishment has long feared.”
- What did Mossad do?
The British report reveals that the Mossad authorized high-level activities against the former prosecutor, and were justified on the basis that the International Criminal Court posed a threat of prosecution against military personnel, according to a senior Israeli official, while another Israeli source familiar with the operation against Bensouda said. The Mossad’s goal was “to expose the prosecutor to danger or to recruit her as someone who cooperates with Israel’s demands,” while a third source familiar with the operation confirmed that Cohen was like an “unofficial envoy” to Netanyahu.
The newspaper quotes four sources that Cohen, who was one of Netanyahu’s closest allies at the time and is emerging as a political force in his own right in Israel, personally led the Mossad’s participation in a nearly decade-long campaign to undermine the court. Four sources confirmed that Bensouda briefed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to influence her, amid concerns about the increasingly threatening nature of his actions.
The former prosecutor officially disclosed this issue to the International Criminal Court, revealing that Cohen had put pressure on her on several occasions not to proceed with a criminal investigation into the Palestine issue before the International Criminal Court. According to the accounts shared, he allegedly told her: “You should help us and let us take care of you. “You don’t want to get involved in things that could put your or your family’s security at risk.”
One person familiar with Cohen’s activities said he used “bad tactics” against Bensouda as part of a “failed effort” to intimidate and influence her. Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained copies of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use these materials to discredit the prosecutor.
A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office told the British newspaper: “The questions submitted to us are filled with many false and baseless complaints aimed at harming the State of Israel.” Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Bensouda also declined to comment, according to The Guardian.
The revelation of Mossad’s efforts to influence Bensouda comes at a time when the current Prosecutor, Khan, has warned in recent days that he will not hesitate to prosecute attempts to obstruct, intimidate or improperly influence ICC officials.
An ICC spokesman did not clarify whether Khan had reviewed his predecessor’s revelations about her communications with Cohen, but he said that Khan had never met or spoken with the Mossad chief.
While the spokesperson declined to comment on specific allegations, they said Khan’s office had been subjected to several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence his activities.
Khan’s decision to request arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant last week was the first time the court had taken action against the leaders of a country closely allied with the United States and Europe. The crimes, which include directing attacks on civilians and using starvation as a method of warfare, are linked to the war that has been ongoing for eight months in Gaza. But the ICC case dates back to 2015, when Bensouda decided to open a preliminary investigation into the situation in Palestine, and a full investigation was not conducted.
Bensouda’s decision angered Israel, which fears that its citizens will be prosecuted for their involvement in operations in the Palestinian territories. Israel has long been vocal about its opposition to the ICC and has refused to recognize its authority. Israeli ministers intensified their attacks on the court. They even pledged to try to dismantle it. Shortly after the initial investigation began, Bensouda and senior prosecutors began receiving warnings that Israeli intelligence was taking a close interest in their work.
According to two sources, there were suspicions among senior ICC officials that Israel had cultivated sources within the court’s prosecution division, known as the Prosecutor’s Office. Another later noted that although Mossad “did not leave his signature,” it was an assumption that the agency was behind some of the activities that officials knew about. However, only a small group of senior figures at the ICC were informed that the Mossad director had personally contacted the prosecutor.
Cohen’s first interaction with Bensouda appears to have occurred at the Munich Security Conference in 2017, when the Mossad director introduced himself to the prosecutor in a brief exchange. After this confrontation, Cohen ambushed Bensouda in a bizarre incident in a hotel suite in Manhattan, according to multiple sources familiar with the incident. Bensouda had visited New York in 2018 on an official visit, and was meeting with Kabila, then President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the hotel where he was staying. They had met several times before in connection with the ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court into alleged crimes committed in his country. At some point in the meeting, after Bensouda’s staff were asked to leave the room, Cohen entered, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. They said the sudden appearance alarmed Bensouda and a group of ICC officials.
Three sources said that after the surprise meeting with Kabila and Bensouda in New York, Cohen repeatedly telephoned the prosecutor and requested meetings with her. According to two people familiar with the situation, Bensouda asked Cohen at one point how he got her phone number, and he replied: “Have I forgotten what I do for a living?”
The sources explained that the intelligence chief initially tried to build a relationship with the public prosecutor and play the role of “good policeman” in an attempt to charm her. They said the initial goal appears to have been to recruit Bensouda to cooperate with Israel. Over time, the tone of Cohen’s communication changed and he began using a range of tactics, including “threats and manipulation,” said one person familiar with the meetings. This prompted Bensouda to report his behavior to a small group of senior ICC officials.
In December 2019, the Prosecutor announced that she had grounds to open a full criminal investigation into allegations of war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. However, it postponed its launch, deciding to first request a ruling from the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber to confirm that the court indeed has jurisdiction over Palestine.
Multiple sources said that at this point, while the judges considered the case, Cohen escalated his attempts to persuade Bensouda not to pursue a full investigation if the justices gave her the green light.
The sources said that between late 2019 and early 2021, there were at least three meetings between Cohen and Bensouda, all at the initiative of the intelligence chief. His behavior is said to be increasingly worrying ICC officials. A source familiar with Bensouda’s accounts of the last two meetings with Cohen said that he raised questions about her security and the security of her family, in a way that led her to believe that he was threatening her.
On one occasion, Cohen is said to have shown Bensouda copies of photographs of her husband, which had been secretly taken when the couple were visiting London. On the other hand, according to sources, Cohen suggested to the prosecutor that the decision to open a full investigation would harm her career. Four sources familiar with the situation said that around the same time Bensouda and other ICC officials discovered that information was circulating among diplomatic channels related to her husband, who was working as an international affairs advisor.
Between 2019 and 2020, in an unprecedented decision, the administration of former US President Trump imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on the International Criminal Prosecutor. The move came in response to Bensouda’s push for a separate investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, allegedly committed by the Taliban and Afghan and American military personnel. However, Mike Pompeo, then US Secretary of State, linked the sanctions package to the Palestinian issue. He said: “It is clear that the International Criminal Court does not put Israel in its crosshairs except for purely political purposes.” Months later, Bensouda was accused, without citing any evidence, of “engaging in corrupt acts for her personal benefit.” US sanctions were canceled after President Joe Biden entered the White House.
In February 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued a ruling confirming the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the occupied Palestinian territories. The following month, Bensouda announced the opening of a criminal investigation. “Ultimately, our primary concern must be with the victims of crimes, both Palestinian and Israeli, resulting from the long cycle of violence and insecurity that has caused profound suffering and despair on all sides,” she said at the time.
Bensouda completed her nine-year term at the ICC after three months, leaving it to her successor Khan to take over the investigation. It was only after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7 and the ensuing war on Gaza that the ICC’s investigations gained renewed importance, culminating in last week’s request for arrest warrants.