ICC filing seeks arrest warrants for Iran’s leaders over Bibas family murders
US attorneys cite FBI intelligence, accusing Tehran of complicity in Hamas killings of Ariel and Kfir Bibas
Lawyers in the United States have filed a case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) demanding arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commander Esmail Qaani, over their alleged role in the 7 October massacre that claimed the lives of Shiri Bibas and her young sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, just nine months old.
The filing, submitted in The Hague by human rights attorney Elliot M. Malin and former US Justice Department war crimes prosecutor Eli M. Rosenbaum, cites FBI intelligence linking Tehran to Hamas’s atrocities. It accuses Iran of providing weapons, training and direction to Hamas, enabling the group to commit genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The lawyers acted on behalf of Maurice Shnaider, whose relatives were murdered and abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His sister Margit Shnaider Silberman and her husband José Luis were killed when their home was torched. Their daughter Shiri Bibas and her children Ariel and Kfir were kidnapped to Gaza and later killed.
“My family had multiple generations tortured and murdered at the hands of those who persecute people of Jewish heritage,” Shnaider said. “First by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and then again on 7 October. ‘Never Again’ was supposed to mean something, so today we demand justice for my lost and affected family, and so many others.”
Malin said: “‘Justice, justice, you shall pursue’ is taught to us in the Bible (Deuteronomy 16:20), and justice we plan to pursue for Mr Shnaider and his entire family.”
Rosenbaum added: “Given that the ICC’s Prosecutor asserted nearly two years ago that the Court possesses jurisdiction over the 7 October Hamas atrocities and their aftermath, it is long past time to act to hold accountable Hamas’s main accomplices in Tehran.”
Malin has previously campaigned for codifying the Genocide Convention into state statute and successfully lobbied for US humanitarian airdrops into Gaza in March 2024. Rosenbaum, who retired from the Justice Department in 2024, is renowned for decades of work prosecuting Nazi war criminals, Rwandan genocidaires and Russian perpetrators of atrocities in Ukraine.
The ICC has not yet confirmed whether it will open an investigation on the basis of the submission.
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