ICC members to vote on ousting prosecutor Karim Khan over misconduct report
ICC members will decide July 24 whether to remove Karim Khan after a misconduct report led to his suspension and a rare public reckoning inside the court.
On July 24, the 125-member Assembly of States Parties will meet in New York for a special session to vote on Karim Khan’s future after the Bureau of the Assembly suspended him with immediate effect on June 8.
The Assembly is the International Criminal Court’s management oversight and legislative body, and it may decide by secret ballot whether to remove the prosecutor from office.
The Bureau based its June 8 decision on a United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation, underlying evidence, advice from an ad hoc panel of judicial experts and written submissions. It stressed that the suspension was not a final judgment. The Assembly has had to create new rules to handle the case.
Khan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. In a June 26 interview with Al Arabiya TV, he said the suspension violated ICC procedures and was unjustified. Earlier, the Bureau had referred the disciplinary proceedings to the Assembly after reviewing the evidence.
The allegations have shadowed the court for more than two years. Whistleblower documents show Khan saw the woman, a female aide working in another ICC department, and moved her into his office, where she later became a regular presence on official trips. In April, a three-judge panel said Khan could potentially resume his duties after rejecting the UN investigation, while the UN probe found evidence of nonconsensual sexual contact in Khan’s office, at his private residence and on mission.
The scandal has also reached beyond The Hague. On June 19, Britain’s Bar Standards Board temporarily suspended Khan from practicing as a barrister in England and Wales. The ICC prosecutor leads the Office of the Prosecutor, which oversees war-crimes investigations including cases involving Ukraine, Gaza and the Philippines.
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