Ousted ICC prosecutor alleges previous UK government threatened to defund court over Israel warrants

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has alleged that an official from the previous UK government threatened to defund the ICC and leave the Rome Statute if the court pressed ahead with arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Karim Khan, who has been placed on leave pending an investigation into sexual abuse allegations that he denies, made the allegation in a submission to the ICC defending his decision to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, the Guardian reports.

He does not identify the British official who issued the threats, but says they came during an April 2024 phone call, and the Guardian speculates that the UK representative was then-foreign secretary David Cameron.

The UK was being led by a caretaker government at the time before the Labour Party won the elections and has taken a slightly more amicable stance toward the ICC.