Senior Amnesty figure calls to ‘seek out and prosecute’ Shaul Mofaz

A senior figure at Amnesty International has called for the immediate prosecution of visiting Israeli diplomat Shaul Mofaz.

Kristyan Benedict, campaigns manager for Amnesty International posted a message on twitter calling for the prosecution of the former IDF chief and defence minister – who was in the UK to attend the UK-Israel strategic challenges conference.

Benedict tweeted: “An urgent call on the UKs Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute visiting war crimes suspect Shaul Mofaz”.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights posted an article in which they echo Benedict’s claims.

They call, “to urgently liaise to ensure that immediate decisions are made regarding the arrest and (if the evidence permits) prosecution of Shaul Mofaz with a war crimes offence contrary to the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (GCA).’

It continues: “It is essential the decisions are made today, 22 June 2015, before Mr Mofaz is able to leave the UK.”

Mr Mofaz was not granted formal diplomatic immunity upon his visit to the UK. Some have accused him of committing war crimes during the 2008-2009 war in the Gaza Strip.

Benedict had previously come into controversy, when he tweeted a link to a story about the Amnesty report on IDF operations during the 2014 conflict, next to the hashtag #JSIL? (Jewish State in the Levant) –a commonly-understood play on one of the longer names of the Islamic terror group, which calls itself ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

At the time, Amnesty distanced itself from Benedict, saying: ““This tweet was made in a personal capacity by a member of staff. Amnesty International has not used the hashtag #JSIL.”