Qatar promised to “look after” International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan if he indicted Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity due to the war in Gaza, according to a recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The Jerusalem Post has the story.

According to the WSJ report, which cited a witness and an audio recording, Qatar was pushing for the investigation in order to “look after” Khan, after the sexual assault allegations that were brought up against him.

The investigation mentions an earlier report by the Guardian where two private investigation firms, Highgate and Elicius Intelligence, were working in the hopes of discrediting Khan’s alleged assault victim.

The report also mentions that the recording, which centres on two investigators discussing Khan’s case and a “client country”, was submitted to the FBI to request an inquiry and is known to several Members of Congress.

Netanyahu addressed the report with a statement saying, “The ICC is a corrupt and morally bankrupt institution that should be closed. It was clear from day one that there was no merit to the absurd accusations against the state of Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel waged a just war by just means against a terrorist organisation that slaughtered our people.”

In the recording mentioned in the report, which the Jerusalem Post couldn’t verify, one of the investigators said, “I spoke to the client about it [referring to suspicions about links between Khan and Qatar]. They weren’t surprised that it had leaked that they were wrapping their arms around him.”

“It’s not that long that they wrapped their arms around him,” another investigator pointed out in the recording, according to the WSJ. “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 WSJ contacted both private investigation firms for comment, with Elicius not replying to the request while Highgate said in a statement that it only worked on a file in defence of the ICC, denying any state or government entity involvement.

Additionally, Khan’s lawyer said that neither the prosecutor nor his team had any involvement in such an intelligence operation. “Our client was not offered or given (and would not have sought or accepted) any ‘promise’ by any state (whether Qatar or any other) to ‘look after’ him if he applied for the arrest warrants,” read his statement.

Worth reading in full.