What will happen after the request for an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu?

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested, Monday, May 20, arrest warrants against Benyamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Gaza Strip and in Israel. Prosecutor Karim Khan, whose investigation concerns facts since 2021, including the events of recent months, specified that he was requesting arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes such as “deliberately starving civilians”, “intentional homicide” And “extermination”. Charges against Hamas leaders include “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” And “hostage-taking as a war crime”.

The information caused a strong reaction from the international community. When could warrants be issued? Will the people targeted be arrested? Franceinfo summarizes the possible consequences of these requests from the prosecutor.

The prosecutor’s request is studied

It was the prosecutor’s office, an independent body within the International Criminal Court, which investigated the situation for several years before requesting these arrest warrants. From now on, “only the pre-trial chambers may issue an arrest warrant or a summons to appear at any time, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person concerned has committed a crime falling within the jurisdiction of the Court”details the ICC in an explanatory document (PDF). This other body of the Court, composed of three judges, is therefore currently analyzing the prosecutor’s request. The latter contains in particular a description of the alleged acts and a summary of the evidence against him.

If this evidence is not sufficient in the eyes of the judges, the latter “may order the prosecutor to provide more evidence or change the charges, or they may terminate the proceedings by dismissing all charges”, completes the ICC website. And “the prosecution may once again request confirmation of the charges by presenting new elements”. “In practice, given the content of these reports which are still quite detailed and given the seriousness which surrounded the preparation of these reports, we can still think that the judges will take a decision favorable to the issuance of warrants stop”says Olivier Corten, professor of international law at the Free University of Brussels, to RTBF.

Judges then make their decision

The judges of the pre-trial chamber must now make their decision. But the procedures are long. To get there, already, the investigation into Israel and Hamas for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories was opened in 2021. It was then extended “to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks of October 7, 2023” perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli soil. Since then, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, says his team has assembled a “large volume” evidence on “relevant incidents”. For the rest, “delays can vary, with weeks or even months sometimes passing between the moment when the ICC prosecutor requests an arrest warrant and when the judges rule”reports the BBC.

Some countries could apply it

If the ICC judges decide to issue the arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu, this means that in theory, any of the 124 member states of this court would be obliged to arrest him if he surrendered on their territory. territory. “No individual can be immune from prosecution because of the functions they exercise”, argues the International Criminal Court. In the event of arrest, the head of the Israeli government would be heard in an initial appearance then during a hearing alongside the prosecution and the legal representatives of the victims, before “judges decide (usually within 60 days) whether there is enough evidence to send the case to trial”details the ICC.

Even if an arrest warrant could complicate certain movements of Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICC does not have any police force and therefore relies on the willingness of its member states to play the game. Israel, the United States, the China or even Russia are not among the member states, as can be seen from the list of countries which apply the decisions of the ICC, which theoretically allows the people targeted by these warrants to go there. “Israel has already affirmed that the ICC had no legitimacy, even that it was anti-Semitic. (…) So we suspect that they are not going to collaborate with the court, which they have not ‘elsewhere not done so far”adds the lawyer Olivier Corten to RTBF.

“We should not expect that any arrest warrants will be executed quickly.”

Olivier Corten, lawyer

at RTBF

Despite this, the scope is above all symbolic, according to experts. “What the prosecutor’s office has done is to show that there is no state above the law, no leader above the law and that a Palestinian life is worth as much as an Israeli life”comments lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, specialist in international criminal law, to franceinfo.