Spring 2012. The Hague, Netherlands. The office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) - the world body which aims to bring war criminals and perpetrators of genocide to justice.

Its Chief Prosecutor, the Argentinian Luis Moreno Ocampo, is preparing to end his nine-year mandate.

Three years previously, the Palestinian Authority demanded an investigation into crimes of Israeli occupation of its territory. Now Ocampo is winding up the case without success.

But he is afraid of the PR fallout from what looks to many as a failure of nerve to take on Israel. For this delicate procedure, it is neither his deputy, Fatou Bensouda, nor his press office, that he asks for advice on how to announce the closure.

It is Angelina Jolie.

On 2 April 2012, Ocampo sends an email to the star of Disney’s ‘Maleficent’ and Oscar-winner for ‘Girl, Interrupted’. The subject line is ‘how to present a decision on Palestine?’ and attached are secret court documents.

“On Tuesday, I will decide that the Office cannot investigate alleged crimes in Palestine,” writes Ocampo. “Palestinian officials understand and respect my decision. The Israelis are also OK. The question is how to present this to normal people.”

Ocampo adds in an email to the American: “Just in case, I am attaching the decision I will take. It is confidential”.

It is not clear why Ocampo has chosen multimillionaire Hollywood celebrity and film director Angelina Jolie as the individual to understand how to communicate complex international judicial procedures to ‘normal people’, other than her experience as an activist in the Balkans.

Nor does Jolie keep the information confidential. She speaks with her own advisor on the Palestine issue.

Her advice to Ocampo is that she sees this as an opportunity to explain to people “the way the court works” and because “rules must be followed” this decision could help “further legitimise the court”.

Jolie is not the only outsider who advises this prosecutor. According to documents obtained by Mediapart and analyzed by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), Ocampo has his own ‘inner court’ of advisors including Hollywood glitterati, billionaire tech entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, mostly from the U.S. and the Arabian peninsula.

These include Sheikha Mozah, wife of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar until 2013; the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pamela; and A-List actor, George Clooney.

All are celebrities wanting to bring justice to Africa - but they do not know how, and cannot really help.

Despite this lack of expertise, Ocampo is willing to indulge their desires to make the world a better place.