Pressure mounts on the Dutch government to investigate “Israel’s” surveillance and intimidation tactics targeting lawyers at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. This comes after a joint investigation by The Guardian and Israeli publications revealed “Israel’s” attempts to surveil, hack, pressure, and threaten ICC staff to obstruct war crimes investigations.
The effort proved fruitless as this month, the ICC prosecutor’s office sought arrest warrants for “Israel’s” Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Security Minister, Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes.
Referring to the findings of The Guardian‘s investigation, Dutch lawmakers from the liberal-progressive D66 party and the Green-Labour alliance have denounced the reported actions and urged for transparency regarding the Dutch government’s knowledge of the situation, along with advocating for an impartial inquiry.
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Kati Piri, a member of parliament within the Green-Labour alliance, directed a set of written inquiries to the Dutch justice, home, and foreign affairs ministers on Wednesday, asserting that the Netherlands holds a distinct obligation to safeguard court personnel and individuals willing to testify about war crimes.
She urged an inquiry into the potential involvement of the Israeli embassy and criticized the actions described in The Guardian as “unacceptable”, citing a significant violation of Article 70 of the Rome Statute – pertaining to offenses against the administration of justice in the ICC’s foundational treaty.
In a post-question submission interview, Piri emphasized that “the claims are extremely serious: intimidation here in The Hague for years and pressure for the past few months on chief prosecutor [Karim] Khan. The Netherlands has a special responsibility as host country of the ICC to make sure that the court can function independently and that its employees are free of this kind of intimidation.”
She noted that claims indicating former chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had reported intimidation to intelligence services should ring familiar to the Netherlands’ incoming prime minister, Dick Schoof, who previously led the AIVD security service. “If this was already known in 2015 and it appears that right up until today these kind of spying and intimidation practices are continuing, what is the Netherlands doing about it?,” she asked.
“When espionage was discovered previously in The Hague, for example, by the Russians at the OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] in 2018, the Netherlands immediately put embassy employees who were involved out of the country. If we are sure that the embassy or members of the Israeli embassy here in Den Haag were involved then there must be consequences,” Piri added.
She highlighted that the Netherlands reacted firmly when the US government under Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the ICC and certain staff members in 2020 due to its probe into potential war crimes by US soldiers in Afghanistan.
“The Netherlands was very openly very angry, not just in diplomatic channels,” she said. “I expect that this government – now that it is about Israel, normally an ally of the Netherlands – should stand up just as firmly for the work of the ICC, the working of international law, and also for the complainants, the employees, and the witnesses who [the Guardian] said have been so intimidated that they no longer dare to give testimony of war crimes at the international court,” she further emphasized.
Source: AlMayadeen
