Allegations against Karim Khan first emerged in 2024, when a female ICC lawyer reported that the chief prosecutor had repeatedly sexually harassed and abused her. File Photo courtesy International Criminal Court | License Photo
Chief prosecutor Karim Khan was ousted from the International Criminal Court on Friday after a months-long investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct.
Allegations against Khan first emerged in 2024, when an ICC lawyer reported that the chief prosecutor had repeatedly sexually harassed and abused her.
Khan, a prominent British lawyer, was suspended from duty in June while ICC member states decided how to proceed.
On Friday, 82 of the court’s 125 members voted to remove Khan during a special session at the United Nations.
His lawyers have repeatedly denied the allegations. After the Friday vote, they told The Guardian that Khan would “challenge the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms.”
Starting in 2021, Khan was serving a nine-year term leading the court’s prosecution division.
His time at the ICC was marked by obtaining high-profile arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Khan’s accuser said the abuse included attempts at groping and genital penetration.
“I have no other way to describe it but an escalation of attempts,” she told CNN.
“(There was) the pawing, the physical nature of it — but it didn’t start that way,” she added. “Because it was kind of like encroachments on the boundaries slowly — not just physically but emotionally as well.”
The abuse left the woman feeling “humiliated” and in fear of losing her livelihood.
“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,” the victim, who still works at the ICC, told CNN. “What I think many people don’t understand is that Mr. Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone’s boss — and it cannot be consensual.”
