Qatar offered to “look after” the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court if he pursued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a reported witness statement submitted to the FBI.
Leaked recordings and witness statements suggest that Qatar offered to assist British KC Karim Khan if he proceeded with arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.
According to material reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Doha is alleged to have reassured Khan as he weighed issuing warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, which were subsequently filed on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In audio recordings cited by the newspaper, an intelligence operative describes an arrangement in which Khan was promised support by “Q country”.
“I spoke to the client about it,” a manager allegedly said in one clip, “and they weren’t surprised that it had leaked that they were wrapping their arms around him.”
“It’s all in the context of issuing the warrant. That was basically the deal. He was like, ‘I want to issue the warrant, but I’m terrified to do it.’ And they said, ‘if you do it, then we’ll look after you,’” the manager reportedly said.
The Journal reported that references to a “client” and “Q country” in the recordings meant Qatar. When asked whether the support came from the state rather than an individual sheikh, the manager replied: “No, it’s the state”.
Separate testimony reviewed by the newspaper indicates that Qatar also commissioned an intelligence operation aimed at discrediting a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Khan.
A witness statement from “a person familiar with that operation who requests anonymity” builds on earlier reporting that private intelligence firms were involved in efforts to undermine one of the accusers.
Investigators are said to have gathered personal information about the woman, a lawyer who worked at the ICC under Khan’s supervision, including passport details, flight records and her child’s birth certificate, while attempting to draw links between her and Israel.
According to the report, operatives noted the woman “didn’t have a Jewish grandmother” and that her husband had once worked for a company with a kosher-food subsidiary. One investigator was recorded as saying: “There’ll be a rabbi associated with it.”
Documents cited by The Journal suggest that researchers sought to “establish any ties between Thomas Lynch and Israel / Jewish heritage”, referring to the senior ICC official who first reported the allegations against Khan. Another assessment claimed Lynch had connections with the “Israel political lobby on the Hill”, which would form part of a “second stage of the investigation”.
The developments come amid mounting scrutiny of Khan.
Last month, ICC member states voted to begin disciplinary proceedings against him.
Khan took a leave of absence from the ICC in May 2025 pending the outcome of an inquiry by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services into the claims that he repeatedly assaulted a colleague.
A second woman came forward in August, telling The Guardian that he subjected her to a “constant onslaught” of unwanted advances during an internship in 2009.
The allegations also include a claim that Khan urged the first accuser not to pursue a complaint so he could proceed with the Netanyahu arrest warrant.
Khan has denied all accusations.
Speaking this week to journalist Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo, he said he had reviewed the UN findings. “Not one of those findings makes determinations or makes findings of conduct that could be characterised as inappropriate in any way, shape, or form. So it’s as clear-cut as that.”
“I cooperated with the process, and the process exonerated me. I’m just concerned that…why is it not being closed straight away?”
He added that he had “never made allegations against anybody, any staff member, being members of Mossad or anything else. I don’t have a counter-intelligence service,” and suggested that Benjamin Netanyahu “has clearly amplified and has sought to instrumentalise… these allegations”.
Khan also claimed that former British Prime Minister Lord Cameron had threatened during his term as foreign secretary to withdraw British support from the ICC if warrants were pursued against Israeli officials.
The lawyer said that after the change of government, there had been “a recommitment by Richard Hermer, the attorney general, and by the Labour government, to try to respect international law more than may have been the case previously”.
“The UK is a permanent member of the council. If it stands for anything, it must stand for international law, and rules and complying and doing the right thing,” he said.
“And if the UK does the right thing, it’ll be good for the UK, and it’ll be good for the international community. And if we don’t, it’ll be the kiss of death for the standing of this great country.”
In response to The Journal report, headlined “Qatar and the ICC prosecutor,” Israel’s prime minister’s office dismissed the ICC as a “corrupt and morally bankrupt institution that should be closed”.
“It was clear from Day 1 that there was no merit to the absurd accusations against the State of Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the statement said.
“Israel waged a just war by just means against a terrorist organisation that slaughtered our people. The ICC is a corrupt court that serves as a lawfare platform used by rogue regimes.”
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