(Adnkronos) – The Dutch Public Prosecution Service is evaluating the request to initiate criminal proceedings against senior Israeli intelligence officials for alleged interference with an International Criminal Court investigation. The request was submitted last week by a group of 20 complainants, most of whom are Palestinian, who are asking the prosecution to examine allegations that Israel attempted to derail the ICC’s investigation into alleged crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to the group’s lawyers, the criminal complaint was filed in response to a ‘Guardian’ investigation that revealed how “Israeli intelligence had attempted for a period of nine years to weaken, influence and allegedly intimidate the ICC’s chief prosecutor’s office,” the British newspaper recalled today.
The investigation, conducted jointly with the Israeli-Palestinian publication ‘+972 Magazine’ and the Hebrew-language publication ‘Local Call’, prompted the Dutch government to raise concerns earlier this year with the Israeli ambassador to the Netherlands.
As host state of the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, the Netherlands is obliged, under an agreement with the court, to protect the safety and security of ICC staff and to ensure that the court is “free from interference of any kind”.
The complaint calls Dutch authorities to honour their obligations to the International Criminal Court “as a matter of urgency”, according to excerpts from the document seen by the Guardian. The complainants’ lawyers argue that “Israel’s numerous attempts to influence, sabotage and stop the investigations constitute a direct violation of their clients’ right to justice”.
Furthermore, they say, Israel’s espionage against the ICC may have involved violations of Dutch criminal law as well as crimes against the administration of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. A spokesman for the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said: “The complaint has been received… and will be studied.” The Israeli embassy in the Netherlands did not respond to a request for comment, the Guardian reported. A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office had previously said the Guardian report included “unfounded allegations intended to harm the State of Israel”.
