Report says Karim Khan ‘privately threatened’ by then-Overseas Secretary David Cameron with UK’s withdrawal from Worldwide Legal Courtroom.
New particulars have emerged a couple of sequence of intimidation campaigns, together with threats to security in addition to attainable sanctions, directed on the British chief prosecutor of the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) as he pursues an investigation into alleged conflict crimes dedicated by Israeli officers in Gaza.
Karim Khan has additionally been subjected to intense stress from high British and United States public officers for The Hague courtroom to withdraw the arrest warrants towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Center East Eye (MEE) information web site reported.
The newest report adopted an earlier revelation by the London-based on-line publication in July that Khan and the ICC have been threatened with being “destroyed” in the event that they pursued the case towards Israel.
Based on the MEE report revealed on Friday, Khan was “privately threatened” by then-British Overseas Secretary David Cameron in April 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants towards the Israeli leaders, which it did so in November.
In Could 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham additionally “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he utilized for the warrants towards Netanyahu and Gallant, the MEE reported.
Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Khan and 4 ICC judges.
Khan additionally acquired a safety briefing warning him that Israel’s Mossad intelligence company “was lively in The Hague and posed a possible menace” to him, the MEE reported.
Khan, who’s at the moment on indefinite depart amid allegations of sexual misconduct, was additionally reportedly informed by his feminine accuser in textual content messages that there have been “video games being performed” and makes an attempt to make her a “pawn in some recreation I don’t wish to play”, in accordance with the MEE.
The ICC investigations into Khan’s alleged behaviour have been later closed after the feminine witness refused to cooperate with them, however a separate United Nations probe stays.
Khan has strenuously denied all of the allegations towards him.
Two weeks earlier than he was pressured to go on depart in Could 2025, Khan additionally reportedly met with Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer on the ICC, to debate the Israel investigation, the MEE report mentioned.
In a observe of the assembly on file on the ICC, Kaufman reportedly informed Khan that if the warrants towards Netanyahu and Gallant weren’t dropped, “they may destroy you, and they’re going to destroy the courtroom.”
The report mentioned some ICC attorneys have privately “expressed doubts” concerning the allegations towards Khan, which emerged after the arrest warrants towards Netanyahu and Gallant have been issued.
The ICC issued arrest warrants towards Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas chief Mohammed Deif on costs of conflict crimes and crimes towards humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assaults on Israel and Israel’s subsequent conflict in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed killed in an Israeli assault.
The Israeli defendants stay internationally needed suspects, and ICC member states are underneath a authorized obligation to arrest them.
Israel’s conflict on Gaza has killed not less than 60,430 Palestinians and wounded 148,722.
In current months, Israel has been accused of committing new conflict crimes after stories that Israeli forces deliberately shot and killed a whole bunch of unarmed Palestinian civilians ready to gather humanitarian assist from GHF meals distribution factors.
