German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to say whether Germany will execute an arrest warrant if it is issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Scholz noted that the arrest warrant has not yet been issued and that Israel has an independent judicial system.
„The decision will be taken by a team of judges”, the German chancellor said at a joint press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Berlin, in response to a journalist's question about the ICC prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant in connection with the actions of Israel during the war in the Gaza Strip.
When deciding whether to issue a warrant, judges “must keep in mind that Israel is a democratic state with a strong and independent judiciary,”, he said.
Under the principle of complementarity, the Hague-based ICC can only prosecute crimes where the domestic jurisdiction is unable or unwilling to do so. If the judges find that Israel is conducting its own credible investigation into the charges brought by the ICC prosecutor, they could reject the request, Reuters said.