The former head of the International Criminal Court, Nigerian judge Chile Eboe-Osugie, explained that it is possible for this court to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other defendants against whom arrest warrants are expected to be issued in the coming period.
Osuji answered questions directed to him by the American “Foreign Policy” regarding the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction over the war between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, especially since it was known – as the magazine indicated – that the court had not been able to arrest defendants before, including former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Russian President Vladimir Vladimir. Putin.
Immunity of superiors
The Nigerian judge said that Al-Bashir has not been arrested or tried to date, despite the issuance of an arrest warrant for him in 2009, because the countries he traveled to during the period of the arrest request were based on the fact that customary international law recognized his immunity as head of state.
He points out that after that, in 2019, the International Criminal Courts Appeals Chamber clearly ruled that there is no such immunity with regard to cases before international courts, especially international criminal courts.
He added that the immediate problem for Israeli officials, under any ICC arrest warrant, would be that the 124 member states would be legally obligated to arrest them if they traveled to any of those countries “and this obligation should not be underestimated.” Just last year, Putin canceled his plans to attend BRICS summit in South Africa, in light of Pretoria’s apparent commitment to arrest him.”
Israel is not a member
The former head of the International Criminal Court explained that although many, including the US government and the media, questioned the jurisdiction of this court and called on it to withdraw, the court has the right to decide on the legality of the behavior of both Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the war.
In response to Netanyahu’s claim that the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court will put Israel in the dock, Osuji said that this claim is wrong, as the International Criminal Court trials are limited to holding individuals accountable for their alleged conduct as crimes, and no indictment will be brought against Israel or the Israelis.
Osuji stressed that the International Criminal Court can prosecute Israeli officials on charges of complicity in crimes allegedly committed by soldiers of the occupation army in the Palestinian territories, even though Israel is not a party to the Rome Treaty under which the International Criminal Court was established.
He also explained that this court has the right to prosecute crimes committed on the territory of a state party to the treaty, whether the defendant is a party to the Rome Statute or not, because Palestine is a state member of the treaty.
Of contradiction
He pointed out that this legal principle was used in the case of Russia, which is not a party to the Rome Statute. In 2022, a group of 39 countries, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This led the court to issue an arrest warrant against Putin for committing war crimes on Ukrainian territory, a step praised by US President Joe Biden.
The former International Criminal Prosecutor commented that it would be a contradiction for any of these countries to accept the court’s jurisdiction over Russian nationals and not accept it over Israelis.
