Jeremy Corbyn urges investigation into report David Cameron threatened ICC's Karim Khan

Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn has called for the British government to investigate reports that former UK Prime Minister David Cameron threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.

Middle East Eye reported in June that on 23 April 2024, then-British foreign secretary David Cameron privately threatened Khan that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants for Israeli leaders.

MEE revealed details of the call based on information from a number of sources - including former staff in Khan's office familiar with the conversation and who have seen the minutes of the meeting.

This week former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, now a key figure along with MP Zarah Sultana in the founding of a new left-wing party, called for Foreign Secretary David Lammy to investigate what occurred in the phone call between Cameron and Khan.

"I think we need to know, and we have a right to know as well," Corbyn said in an interview with MEE, describing the report as "quite astonishing".

He said he was in parliament when it voted on the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding charter.

"There was opposition from some Conservatives who wanted the armed forces exempt from it," Corbyn recalled.

"But that didn’t happen, it went through in the way it should have done, and we are part of the ICC. 

"And so the idea that the foreign secretary [Cameron] would challenge the chief prosecutor, who’s a man who should be treated with respect, with great integrity, and in a very, very difficult job - to be threatened by one of the original signatories [of the Rome Statute] is absolutely appalling and shocking."

In June, Cameron did not respond to MEE’s requests for comment and the British Foreign Office declined to comment.

'Cameron, in a sense, is in a contempt of the ICC process'

Cameron, now a Conservative peer, was the British prime minister between 2010 and 2016. Corbyn was leader of the opposition from 2015 to 2020.

Corbyn further warned that threatening the ICC prosecutor is a criminal offence.

Numerous legal experts told MEE there is a serious risk that Cameron could be criminally liable.

'If you set up a legal system then you have to protect those that are making the decisions from intimidation'

Francesca Albanese, the prominent legal scholar and UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, explained that if Cameron acted as MEE's sources said he did, the former foreign secretary and prime minister has committed a "criminal offence under the Rome Statute". 

The Rome Statute criminalises those who attempt to prevent war crimes from being prosecuted.

"A case could be mounted on that basis," Corbyn said, "and Francesca is correct... if you set up a legal system then you have to protect those that are making the decisions from intimidation."

Corbyn added that if he as an MP attempted to influence a British judge, "that judge would probably haul me straight before the court, as being in contempt of court. And he would be right, or she would be right, to do that. So the same principle must apply in international law as well.

"And so Cameron, in a sense, is in contempt of the ICC process," he argued.

'Cameron will have to answer questions'

ICC Prosecutor Khan, a British citizen, applied in May 2024 for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders.

ICC judges approved the warrants in November, four months after the Conservative government had been voted out of office.

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Corbyn said he has heard Cameron "on other occasions call for the ICC to operate as it has against other leaders around the world. What it did in Sudan, what it did in former Yugoslavia, he supported all of that.

"So he can’t pick and choose."

Corbyn paused. "Or perhaps he can."

MEE reported that Cameron told Khan that it was one thing to investigate and prosecute Russia for a "war of aggression" on Ukraine, but quite another to prosecute Israel when it was "defending itself from the attacks of 7 October".

According to MEE's sources, Cameron spoke aggressively and repeatedly shouted over Khan, who had to ask to be able to complete his points.

Earlier this month, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Cameron's phone call with Khan, saying he threatened the prosecutor that Britain would withdraw from the ICC if the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

Corbyn noted that MEE and Le Monde reported on the incident, but said he had "seen nothing of it anywhere" in the mainstream British media.

"I’ve seen it mentioned on social media but not the British media," he said.

"So let’s get the story out there and Cameron, who’s a member of the House of Lords, at some point, is going to have to answer questions about this."

Sources the ICC prosecutor spoke to in the hours following his phone call with Cameron told MEE he seemed surprised and upset by the exchange.

"I don’t like being pressurised," Khan said, according to sources present at the time.

"I don’t like being - I won’t say if it rises to blackmail - I don’t like being threatened."

In September Corbyn's Peace and Justice Project will hold a "Gaza Tribunal". The MP told MEE he expects the tribunal will address the allegations against Cameron.