The International Criminal Court has moved to dismiss its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Khan, who became the ICC’s third prosecutor after his election in 2021, was suspended in June as accusations involving a female aide came under scrutiny.
The push to remove him from the 125-member court was approved after 82 members voted in favour of his ouster.
Päivi Kaukoranta, president of the Assembly of States Parties, said the ICC’s oversight body determined that Khan had engaged in “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty.”
Documents cited in the case allege that Khan had a sexual relationship with the woman and later sought to stop her from taking her accusations forward.
Khan, 56, has rejected the conclusions and continues to deny all allegations made against him.
The drawn-out and politically sensitive proceedings have exposed divisions among human rights campaigners, ICC employees and member states, arriving at a particularly difficult moment for the court as it faces mounting pressure, including a United States effort to “dismantle” the institution created to prosecute the world’s gravest crimes.
The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Khan and around a dozen other ICC officials, a response to arrest warrants issued for senior Israeli figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza, as well as the court’s investigations involving US personnel in Afghanistan.
The International Criminal Court has voted to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan for alleged sexual misconduct
A woman known only as Sarah appeared on CNN last week to speak about the alleged abuse she experienced at the hands of Khan
The court’s oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties, concluded Khan had committed ‘serious misconduct and serious breach of duty,’ said Päivi Kaukoranta, the body’s president
‘Karim Khan believed that by launching a political witch hunt against Israel and issuing a politically motivated arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu, the world would ignore the grave sexual misconduct allegations against him. He was wrong,’ Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a statement.
The allegations have become entwined with the court’s investigation into the war in Gaza, experts said.
‘Political considerations have been folded into this, especially as it is the first time a prosecutor has pursued warrants against a Western ally,’ said Iva Vukusic, a researcher at Utrecht University who has been following the process.
Mr Khan’s removal will have no immediate impact on the arrest warrants in 2024 for Mr Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity, which can only be withdrawn by ICC judges.
The ousted chief prosecutor’s lawyers described his suspension as ‘unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence’.
Last week, two of his alleged victims spoke publicly about the claims against Mr Khan.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, an ICC employee identified only as Sarah described the British lawyer’s behaviour as ‘an escalation of attempts’, adding: ‘It was kind of like encroachments on the boundaries slowly – not just physically, but emotionally as well.’
Sarah, who worked directly for Mr Khan, alleged that, during an official visit to Colombia, he entered her hotel room.
She recounted that he touched her intimately while she pretended to be asleep, claiming that he ‘started to put his hand down my leggings, to grope me, to put his tongue in my ear’.
‘There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,’ Sarah added.
Karim Khan was suspended two weeks ago by the ICC and the Bar Standards Board, stopping him from practising in England and Wales
A second woman, referred to by a pseudonym, Patricia, also spoke to CNN.
The woman, who came forward last year with allegations against Mr Khan, had worked for him earlier in his career.
She said that while working as an intern in 2009, she was required to work at his house.
The former intern alleged that ‘without fail every time I was there it was a constant onslaught of him coming on to me, groping me, grabbing me, kissing my face, touching my hair, trying to get me to engage in intimate activity with him’.
Earlier this month, Britain’s legal watchdog announced that it had upheld a suspension for Mr Khan over allegations of sexual misconduct, banning him from practising law in the UK.
In June, the UK’s Bar Standards Board suspended Mr Khan, a measure adopted ‘in very serious and urgent cases’, according to the regulator, following a complaint.
After a hearing, the bar association upheld the decision while disciplinary proceedings are underway.
