From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 23, 2024
ICC prosecutor insists court has power to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Sinwar
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor calls on judges to “urgently” rule on his request for arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, insisting the court has jurisdiction.
“It is settled law that the Court has jurisdiction in this situation,” Prosecutor Karim Khan writes in a 49-page legal brief.
Khan calls on a panel of ICC pretrial judges to “urgently render its decisions” on the requests he filed in May for warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Sinwar, along with the terror group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh and military chief Muhammad Deif, who have both been killed since.
The brief filed by Khan comes in response to legal arguments filed by dozens of countries, academics, victims’ groups and rights groups either rejecting or supporting the court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the ongoing war in Gaza and Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
In his May request for arrest warrants, Khan accused Netanyahu, Gallant and the three Hamas leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for them to travel abroad.
Many of the legal arguments filed to ICC judges in recent weeks focused largely on the issue of whether the court’s power to issue warrants for Israeli leaders is overruled by a provision of the 1993 Oslo Accords peace deal. As part of the deal, the Palestinians agreed that they don’t have criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals.
Khan insists the argument that the accords could nullify the court’s jurisdiction is “without merit.”
It remains unclear when judges will rule on Khan’s request for warrants.
