A British-Israeli defence lawyer at the International Criminal Court linked to a Netanyahu adviser delivered message to Karim Khan.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has been warned that if arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be “destroyed”, the Middle East Eye (MEE) reports.
The warning was delivered in May to Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court linked to a Netanyahu adviser who said the Israeli leader’s legal adviser told him he was “authorised” to make Khan a proposal that would allow Khan to “climb down the tree”, the news website said.
According to a note of the meeting on file at the ICC and seen by MEE, Kaufman told Khan to apply to the court to reclassify the warrants and underlying information as “confidential”.
This, it was suggested, would allow Israel to access the details of the allegations, which it could not do at the time, and challenge them in private – without the outcome being made public.
Kaufman warned Khan that if it emerged Khan was applying for more arrest warrants for far-right Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich over their promotion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, then “all options would be off the table.”
Kaufman told Khan: “They will destroy you, and they will destroy the court.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif in November on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent genocidal war in Gaza. Deif has since been confirmed dead.
Since then, the Israeli defendants are internationally wanted suspects, and ICC member states are under legal obligation to arrest them although several have been wary to agree to it.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, hit out this month against countries that have allowed Netanyahu to fly over their airspace en route to the United States, suggesting that they may have flouted their obligations under international law.
Albanese said the governments of Italy, France and Greece needed to explain why they provided “safe passage” to Netanyahu, who they were theoretically “obligated to arrest” as an internationally wanted suspect when he flew over their territory on his way to meet US President Donald Trump for talks.
All three countries are signatories of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established The Hague-based ICC in 2002.
Kaufman told MEE: “I do not deny that I told Mr Khan that he should be looking for a way to extricate himself from his errors. I am not authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government nor did I.”
Khan and his wife, Dato Shyamala Alagendra, who also attended the meeting with Kaufman, both confirmed this to be a threat, according to the note of the meeting seen by MEE.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment from MEE.
At the time of the meeting, Khan was facing investigation over sexual misconduct claims. Two weeks later, Khan stepped down on indefinite leave after the publication by The Wall Street Journal of new allegations of sexual assault.
Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.
MEE revealed details of Khan’s meeting with Kaufman on May 1 at a hotel in The Hague.
Kaufman is an ICC defence lawyer whose current work includes representing Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines currently in ICC custody. He was arrested on an ICC warrant over allegations that “crimes against humanity” were committed during what his government called its “war on drugs”.
