Suddenly tears come to his eyes. “A child dies every fifteen minutes in Gaza. We’ve been talking for two hours: eight children have already died. » Since the tragic day of October 7, with more than 1,400 people murdered by Hamas in Israel, and the outbreak of war, Johann Soufi, 41, has become a voice, that of Gaza. A lawyer specializing in international law, he nevertheless specifies: “I don’t want to become a media figure, the embodiment of the defender of the people of Gaza. But I want to be able to give them a voice. »
On September 21, he wrote in a column, published in The world : “In the absence of any prospect of a political solution, only the International Criminal Court (ICC) is today capable of bringing hope of justice to Palestinian victims. » Now, as the war rages, he explains: “Justice knows how to be patient. The emergency is the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, the protection of civilians and the survival conditions of the thousands of people displaced to the south of the territory. »
From September 2020 to March 2023, he led the legal activities of the office of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. More than 13,000 employees, 1.6 million beneficiaries at the time. “UNWRA manages schools, hospitals, social services, food distribution, labor law, international law…” explains the one who nothing predestined for such a mission.
Son of a Breton mother and a Kabyle father (he has French and Algerian nationality), both lawyers, Johann Soufi grew up and studied in Cergy, in Val-d’Oise. He joined a criminal law firm in Pontoise, but hardly flourished there. “I wanted to confront more important issues. I experience justice on a broader scale. »
East Timor, Ivory Coast, Mali…
At the age of 25, he wrote to the approximately 300 lawyers who collaborate with the ICC. Only one, Arthur Vercken, gives him a chance. He joined his team to participate in the defense of Callixte Kalimanzira, a former senior official of the Rwandan Ministry of the Interior tried for his involvement in massacres of Tutsi. Here he is flying to Kigali, then Tanzania, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sits. He stayed there for four years. ” It was wonderful. That’s when I got hooked on international justice and told myself I’ll do this until I die! »
Missions in East Timor, Ivory Coast, Mali and the Central African Republic followed. In 2012, he was recruited by the Special Court for Sierra Leone which tried Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia. It continues with that for Lebanon, during the trial of the alleged assassins of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
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