Kinshasa, June 3rd, 2026 (CPA).- The former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, has revealed in an interview with a Qatari television channel that she had been trapped by the former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, on behalf of the director of Mossad, in New York, in 2015. “It was in a hotel in New York, on the side-lines of the United Nations General Assembly. We were in a meeting with President Kabila and one of my colleagues. At that moment, Kabila has told me that someone wanted to meet me. It was Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad,” Ms Bensouda has declared in an interview with the Qatari channel Al Jazeera.
She has indicated that former President Kabila had invited her to a meeting supposedly devoted to crimes committed by Rwanda in DRC. However, he has suggested her to meet another person. According to Fatou Bensouda, at that time, the ICC was investigating alleged crimes committed by the Israeli army in Palestine. “I cannot go into details, but it was about our investigations concerning the situation in Palestine,” the former prosecutor has explained.
Mr Kabila, who has led DRC for 18 years (2001–2019), is now portrayed as the leader of a rebellion in the east of the country, with the support of Rwanda. He is currently subject to US sanctions and is accused of obstructing peace efforts in the region. In DRC, he has been sentenced to death by the Congolese military court.
During his rule, Mr Kabila befriended the Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, who has also been sanctioned by the United States for corruption. The former President Kabila, often described by his critics as close to Rwanda, is also accused by some of his opponents of acting as a Mossad agent.