Israel’s ex-Mossad chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes case
Former chief of the Israeli Mossad spy agency Yossi Cohen has “threatened” Fatou Bensouda, a chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), over a 2021 war crimes probe, pressuring her to drop the case, a report says.
In a report on Tuesday, The Guardian said that Cohen engaged in “threats and intimidation” in a series of secret meetings with Bensouda, pressuring her into abandoning a war crimes investigation against the leaders of the occupying regime.
The investigation culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant over the regime’s brutal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Khan said he had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
According to the British daily newspaper, Cohen covert contacts with Bensouda took place between 2017 and 2021, when the then chief ICC prosecutor finally launched the probe into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Tel Aviv regime.
Citing unnamed Israeli and ICC officials, the report added that Cohen, who served as the chief of Mossad from 2016 to 2021, had frequent and increasingly threatening communications with Bensouda during the said years that amounted to “stalking.”
Israeli sources told The Guardian that Cohen was allegedly approved “at a high level” to act as Netanyahu’s “unofficial messenger” trying to compromise Bensouda or get her to comply with Tel Aviv’s demands.
“You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family,” Cohen had allegedly told Bensouda, according to sources.
Israel’s barbarous campaign in Gaza began in early October. It has now driven virtually 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million from their homes.
The regime’s savagery has caused considerably vast destruction in towns and cities.
Israel has also killed at least 36,050 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
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