GENEVA: Geneva: Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been hit with a criminal complaint during a trip to Switzerland, Swiss prosecutors said on Friday, amid allegations of crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed 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.
It said that the criminal complaints will now be examined as per the usual procedure.
Federal Prosecutor’s Office added that it was in contact with the foreign ministry to examine the question of the immunity of the person concerned.
It did not provide the details what the specific complaints were, or who had lodged them.
A statement allegedly issued by the people behind the complaint, entitled “Legal Action Against Crimes Against Humanity” and obtained by AFP, said that several unnamed people had lodged charges with federal prosecutors and with cantonal authorities in Zurich, Basel, and Bern.
The statement said the plaintiffs were requesting a criminal prosecution in parallel to a case brought before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice by South Africa, which accuses Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza.
Addressing the matter of immunity, the statement said that it could be lifted “in certain circumstances,” including in cases of alleged crimes against humanity.
South Africa launches the emergency case against Israel
South Africa started the emergency case at the ICJ in The Hague this month, saying that Israel had breached the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
South Africa called the judges order Israel to halt its aggression in the Palestinian territory. Israel has criticized the case as “distorted.”
