'Karim Khan did his job': Founding chief prosecutor on threats against ICC
He was in the role from 2003 until 2012 and initiated several major investigations.
Now the Argentinian lawyer is urging the world to defend the ICC against intense international pressure.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan "knew the UK and US were threatening him if he prosecuted Netanyahu", Moreno Ocampo said on Thursday in an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye.
Khan, the prosecutor who successfully sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in May last year, was sanctioned by the Trump administration in February this year for seeking to investigate US and Israeli nationals.
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The UK did not publicly threaten Khan, but MEE has revealed that last April, David Cameron, then the British foreign secretary, threatened in a phone call with Khan that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
Cameron did not respond to multiple requests by MEE for comment.
"It would be interesting to interview Mr Cameron," Moreno Ocampo said.
Former ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo (L) speaks with then ICC's new chief Fatou Bensouda (R) after her swearing-in ceremony, 15 June 2012 (File photo/AFP)
MEE also revealed on Tuesday that Khan was warned in May that if arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were not withdrawn, he and the ICC would be "destroyed".
The warning was delivered to Karim Khan by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court who told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu's legal advisor and, according to a note of the meeting lodged on file at the ICC and seen by Middle East Eye, was "authorised" to make him a proposal that would allow Khan to "climb down the tree".
He told Khan to apply to the court to reclassify the warrants and underlying information as "confidential".
Exclusive: David Cameron threatened to withdraw UK from ICC over Israel war crimes probe Read More »
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 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."
Commenting on MEE's reporting, Moreno Ocampo said: "I think you're you're doing a great job exposing the type of pressure [Khan] received, including from a private lawyer from Israel, including from the UK former prime minister."
But, he asked who was protecting the court.
"The question for me is... these are the attackers. Who are the defenders? Where are the countries supporting the court? Where are they and where are the other countries supporting the court?" he asked.
"Khan did his job," he said, referring to the Netanyahu and Gallant arrest warrants.
However, he noted, the warrants are no longer in Khan's hands.
In mid-May, Khan stepped down on indefinite leave following a failed attempt to have him suspended, amid an ongoing United Nations probe into sexual misconduct allegations against him – and just as he was reportedly preparing to seek arrest warrants for more members of the Israeli government.
Khan has strenuously denied all the allegations against him.
'The court will survive'
Moreno Ocampo noted that the court's deputy prosecutors are currently preparing more cases linked to Israel's activities in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli security forces and settlers were this week accused by the UN of intensifying their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians.
"So that is a challenge [for the deputy prosecutors] in charge - show the court is still working."
He asked: "Where are the other countries protecting the court?"
'Where are the other countries protecting the court?'
- Luis Moreno Ocampo, founding ICC prosecutor
In particular, Moreno Ocampo called for the Arab League to show support for the court.
He pointed out that the US "is sanctioning the prosecutor and the judges, so who's protecting them? Where are the Arab countries protecting the court?
"The Arab League should be active supporting the court," he added.
"Arab countries could do something specific to support the court or politically supporting the court. Making connection with the Europeans and the South Americans and the Africans who are supporting the court, and [making] a coalition of countries supporting the court."
Just five Arab League member states are signatories of the ICC's Rome Statute: Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia, Djibouti, and Comoros.
Moreno Ocampo recalled that when he indicted Sudan's President Omar Bashir, "some countries were very unhappy and some of them explained to me how important for them was oil".
ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be 'destroyed' Read More »
He insisted the court itself does not face an existential threat.
"The court is the permanent court. The court will survive. The problem is, what happens with the world? Are we going to survive as humanity? If we are killing each other?"
The ICC is the only permanent international court tasked with the prosecution of individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
Moreno Ocampo said that genocide has become a "accepted military strategy", pointing to the International Court of Justice saying there is a "risk of genocide in Gaza".
"There is a game called Fortnite, a video game, very popular. The winner has to kill all the others. So Fortnite could be a good metaphor of the world today if we are not supporting, strengthening... the legal system."
He added: "We need political leaders making efforts to protect the legal system. We need to integrate political power and legal standards.
"That's the only way to protect people in Gaza, in Ethiopia, in Darfur."
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