KARACHI: Fatou Bensouda, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has detailed a high-stakes pressure campaign orchestrated by the former head of Israel’s Mossad, sharing that she was personally threatened in an effort to derail investigations in Palestine.
In an interview with Al Jazeera published on Sunday (May 24), Bensouda recounted a series of encounters with Yossi Cohen, then-director of Israel’s overseas intelligence agency. The most significant meeting took place in a New York hotel during the UN General Assembly, where Bensouda was meeting with a head of state.
“The person comes out of somewhere,” Bensouda said, identifying the individual as Cohen. “It was to deal with the investigations in Palestine... The bottom line was clear: they did not want the investigation into the situation in Palestine to proceed. He told me I needed to stop.”
Per Bensouda, she defended herself and said what she was doing was her work and that she was not “targeting anyone”.
“I have taken an oath that I will do my work without fear or favour,” she said. “We cannot let [the victims] down.”
The disclosure adds fresh detail to long-standing allegations of Israeli interference in the Hague-based court’s work. Bensouda described a shifting tactic by the intelligence chief that began as an attempt to “win her over” before pivoting to overt intimidation. Asked if she perceived Cohen’s communications as a threat to her and her family, Bensouda replied: “Of course.”
The pressure on Bensouda was not limited to clandestine meetings. She recounted subtle intimidation at her home in The Hague, involving unidentified individuals who left an envelope of cash ($500) to signal they knew her private address.
Bensouda’s tenure (2012 to 2021) was marked by unprecedented clashes with global powers. In 2020, the Trump administration imposed swingeing sanctions on her and other senior ICC officials, freezing US-based assets and hindering basic financial transactions. Bensouda revealed that the sanctions were so restrictive that her mortgage was affected and her son’s bank account in the Gambia was blocked.
“Justice... is being sacrificed at the altar of political interest,” Bensouda said, adding that she felt “unsupported” by the Dutch government, the court’s host state, during the height of the intimidation.
