Ex-Mossad Head Threatened ICC Chief to Abandon IOF War Crimes Probe

The former head of the Israeli Mossad, Yossi Cohen, reportedly threatened the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, during secret meetings to pressure her into abandoning the investigation into “Israel” for war crimes in Palestine.

According to The Guardian, an Israeli source briefed on the operation against Bensouda claimed that the Mossad meant to compromise Bensouda or enlist her as someone who would work with “Israel’s” demands, while another source said Cohen was serving as Netanyahu’s “unofficial messenger”.

Four sources confirmed that Bensouda notified a few senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to persuade her, while three of them said she told them Cohen pressured her multiple times to not go on with the Palestine case.

Accounts shared with ICC officials say that he is reported to have told her, “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.”

One individual said Cohen applied “despicable tactics” against her as his behavior was likened to “stalking”.

The Mossad even obtained transcripts of secret recordings and photos of her husband, according to two sources, who continued to say that he tried to blackmail and discredit her.

These revelations are part of an investigation by The Guardian, the publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew outlet Local Call, into how Israeli intelligence agencies ran a covert “war” against the ICC for almost 10 years.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, contacted by The Guardian, said, “The questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel.” 

This comes amid efforts by current ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to prosecute “attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence” ICC officials.

Legal experts and former ICC officials say that efforts by Cohen to pressure Bensouda could amount to offenses against the administration of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute.

A spokesperson for the ICC said Khan’s office was subject to “several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities.”

‘It’s a trap’

Bensouda, after launching the preliminary examination of the case of war crimes in Palestine in 2015,  started getting warnings that Israeli intelligence was taking a keen interest in the case.

A source recalled that even though the Mossad “didn’t leave its signature,” it was assumed that the agency was behind some of the activity officials were aware of.

Cohen is known in “Israel’s” intelligence community as a recruiter of foreign agents and loyal to the occupation’s Prime Minister after being appointed as director of the Mossad by Netanyahu in 2016 after working as his advisor.

Cohen’s first contact with Bensouda seemingly took place at the Munich security conference in 2017, and then Cohen “ambushed” her in a Manhattan hotel suite, according to multiple sources.

Bensouda then in 2018 was on an official visit to New York to meet Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at his hotel. However, the meeting turned out to be a setup.

Bensouda’s staff were asked to leave the room, after which Cohen came in, according to three sources familiar with the meeting, which caused concern to Bensouda and a group of ICC officials accompanying her.

Why Kabila aided Cohen is not yet known, but ties between them were uncovered in 2022 by the Israeli publication TheMarker, which shows that secretive trips the Mossad director made to the DRC go back to 2019.

TheMarker stated that Cohen’s trips, meant to seek Kabila’s advice “on an issue of interest to Israel,” were highly unusual. In 2022, Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 said his trips were indicating an “extremely controversial plan” and cited official sources who called it “one of Israel’s most sensitive secrets.”

After the surprise meeting, Cohen repeatedly called Bensouda to try and meet with her. According to two people, Bensouda asked Cohen at one point how he obtained her number, to which he replied, “Did you forget what I do for a living?”

Between 2019 and 2020, the Mossad had been actively seeking compromising information on the prosecutor and took an interest in her family members.

Cohen, with time, began using “threats and manipulation,” and a source knowledgeable with Bensouda’s accounts of the last two meetings said Cohen asked about her security and that of her family in a manner that made her believe he was threatening her.

Three sources briefed on the information shared by “Israel” called it an unsuccessful “smear campaign” against Bensouda. “They went after Fatou,” one source said, but it had “no impact” on the prosecutor’s work.

Between 2019 and 2020, the Trump administration imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on the ICC prosecutor after a separate pursuit by Bensouda to prosecute for war crimes committed in Afghanistan.

That is when Mike Pompeo, then-US Secretary of State, accused Bensouda, without evidence, of having “engaged in corrupt acts for her personal benefit.”

“In the end, our central concern must be for the victims of crimes, both Palestinian and Israeli, arising from the long cycle of violence and insecurity that has caused deep suffering and despair on all sides,” she said in February 2021. 

Bensouda completed her nine-year term three months later and was later succeeded by Khan.

“The fact they chose the head of Mossad to be the prime minister’s unofficial messenger to [Bensouda] was to intimidate, by definition,” said a source. “It failed.”

This all comes as last week, Khan announced the filing of requests for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, as well as three Palestinian Resistance leaders. The move triggered a wave of condemnation from US officials, especially Senator Lindsey Graham who said he would lead the efforts to impose sanctions on the ICC if it issues the arrest warrants.