Israeli president targeted with criminal prosecution while in Switzerland

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is facing a criminal probe during a visit to Switzerland, Swiss prosecutors said, amid reports of crimes against humanity over the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) confirmed on Friday, the Times of Israel said, that it had received a criminal complaint against the Israeli president, who was at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Thursday to discuss the Gaza war.

“The criminal complaints will now be examined in accordance with the usual procedure,” BA says in a statement, adding that it is in contact with the foreign ministry “to examine the question of the immunity of the person concerned”.

It does not say what the specific complaints were, or who filed them.

But a statement allegedly issued by the people behind the complaint, entitled “Legal Action Against Crimes Against Humanity” and obtained by AFP, says several unnamed individuals had filed charges with federal prosecutors and with cantonal authorities in Basel, Bern and Zurich.

The statement says the plaintiffs were seeking a criminal prosecution in parallel to a case brought before the UN’s International Court of Justice by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Addressing the issue of immunity, the statement suggests that it could be lifted “in certain circumstances”, including in cases of alleged crimes against humanity, adding that “these conditions are met in this case”.