ICC prosecutor reportedly prepared arrest warrants for Ben Gvir, Smotrich
Karim Khan, accused of sexual assault, planned to request the warrants due to the ministers expanding settlements before he went on leave amid the sexual misconduct investigations against him
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan – who recently went on a leave of absence after he was accused of sexual assault – prepared to ask the court to issue arrest warrants against Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The arrest warrants against the two were supposed to be for expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a source said, not because of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Sources told the newspaper that the decision on whether to continue the process, which was frozen due to charges against Karim Khan, is now in the hands of Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang, the deputy attorneys general, and it is yet unclear how they plan to continue. Official sources and legal experts cast doubt on whether the court will indeed continue the process when the prosecutor is not in the role, considering the risks such a stance could bring.
Israel argues that the settlements are not illegal under international law, as they were previously under Jordanian occupation that was not recognized internationally, although tacitly accepted.
Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, went on his hiatus a week ago, pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct towards one of his assistants in a suite located near the UN building in New York. Khan decided to issue international arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Galant last November, a move slammed by Israel and ostensibly done to take attention away from the allegations against him.