ICC prosecutor Karim Khan faces disciplinary action over misconduct
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The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who filed charges against the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is facing a disciplinary investigation against him due to sexual harassment allegations.
After more than a year of investigating allegations that Karim Khan engaged in sexual harassment with a subordinate employee, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) voted in favor of launching disciplinary proceedings against Khan, Reuters reported.
Accordingly New York TimesThe alleged victim disclosed her sexual relationship with Khan to her husband and several colleagues in April 2024. After his colleagues confronted Khan in May, the magistrates’ report quoted a witness who said Khan “jumped to the ‘lifeline’ of an alternative narrative after another colleague said he ‘suspected whether the Mossad was playing a role behind the scenes’.”
ICC PROSECUTOR BEHIND NETANYAHU GUARANTEES HIM TO STEP AWAY WHEN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATION
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan poses during an interview with AFP at the Palais Royal Cour d’Honneur in Paris on February 7, 2024. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor wants to prosecute “environmental crimes” without amending the court’s statute because damage to the environment is often the cause or consequence of war crimes or crimes against humanity, which the ICC can already prosecute, Karim Khan said on February 7, 2024, in an interview with AFP. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP)
Just weeks later, Khan issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Trump administration sanctioned Khan in February 2025 in response to war crime warrants against Israeli officials.
George Mason University professor Eugene Kontorovich told Fox News Digital that Khan’s “fact that he specifically blamed the Mossad for his problems shows that he was fundamentally compromised and that the investigation he initiated… would be dismissed with extreme prejudice in any normal legal system.”
He said it was a sign of how broken the ICC was “at allowing such a politicized investigation to proceed”.
The disciplinary action came after 15 member states voted in favor of moving forward with disciplining Khan, with four votes against and two abstentions. In a letter read aloud during the meeting, prosecutors’ officials said they were not in favor of Khan continuing to serve as attorney general.
SCANDAL LEFT IT TO THE CONCEPT OF LEGITIMACY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT ON THE ISRAEL INVESTIGATION
JERUSALEM – JULY 20: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER OFFICE / DISTRIBUTION’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS—-) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C), Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi (R) and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant (left) monitors from the operations center in Jerusalem the attack by Israeli warplanes on the Hodeida Port in Yemen, controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis on the Red Sea coast, on July 20, 2024. (Israeli Prime Ministry/Anatolia)
The vote represented a change from the consensus of three judges who ruled last month that there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations against Khan “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the New York Times reported. The judges uncovered more than 5,000 pages of evidence, based on findings from an investigation conducted by the United Nations’ Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). While the UN investigation report determined Khan had “non-consensual sexual intercourse” with the employee, the judge’s report found there was no evidence of abuse.
In a press release, the International Association of Criminal Law Prosecutors (AICLP) highlighted the “structural deficiencies” clearly evident in the investigation against Khan.
These include the Independent Oversight Mechanism, whose processes were “inadequate to the task” when it closed an investigation into the attack after the alleged victim “refused to make a formal complaint” and claimed she feared retaliation. “The court cannot credibly prosecute the most serious crimes against individuals while tolerating a culture in which its own personnel are inadequately protected.” AICLP defended.
The AICLP was further concerned by Khan’s alleged retaliation against staff who supported the complainant. “We observe that the standard of fitness to lead the world’s leading international criminal prosecution office is not the absence of misconduct proven beyond reasonable doubt,” the AICLP wrote. “It also includes the institution’s demonstrated capacity to gain the trust of its own staff, and that trust appears, on the evidence now before the Assembly of States Parties, to have been deeply and publicly shattered.”
Flag bearing the logo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Den Haag, Netherlands, on March 29, 2022. (Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images)
The AICLP believes that “a prompt, principled and transparent resolution is not only a matter of justice for the individuals directly involved, but also a prerequisite for restoring the operational integrity of an Office on which international criminal justice depends.”
Prior to the announcement of the Bureau’s decision to take disciplinary action against Khan, the ICC instructed Fox News Digital to: a press release ASP President stated “[d] Concern over recent media reports regarding the ongoing disciplinary process against the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.” The ASP President called for “due respect for the privacy and rights of all parties involved, as well as for the integrity of the ongoing process.”
“Trying to distract from the facts of the claim by blaming Israel is indicative of the anti-Israel bias that clearly exists, and it reduces the ICC to an instrument of political warfare rather than any court of justice,” Peter Gallo, a former researcher at OIOS, told Fox News Digital.
Gallo noted that “the panel of judges appeared to be stuck on the lack of sufficient evidence to meet the ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ standard” and asked why “a particular international official [should] Lower ranking personnel will be held to a ridiculously high standard of proof when this is not the case.”
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The ICC did not respond to follow-up questions about whether investigations into Gallant and Netanyahu would continue if Khan was removed from office.
OIOS did not respond to a request for comment on Fox News Digital’s report.
Reuters contributed to this report.
