Members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have voted to dismiss Karim Khan as chief prosecutor for alleged sexual misconduct.
Elected the ICC’s third prosecutor in 2021, Khan was suspended final month. The resolution to take away him was handed with 82 votes in favour.
The courtroom’s oversight physique present in June he had dedicated a “serious breach of duty and serious misconduct” by participating in an improper sexual relationship with a junior ICC employees member and looking for to cease her pursuing her criticism.
Khan has repeatedly denied all of the allegations towards him.
His attorneys have described his suspension as “unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence”.
This course of goes past the destiny of a single prosecutor and will reshape the world’s solely everlasting warfare‑crimes tribunal.
The misconduct investigation has put the establishment underneath a obvious highlight, intensified divisions inside it and performed out alongside an unprecedented marketing campaign to weaken, and in reality dismantle, the ICC in its entirety.
The concern amongst its supporters is that the courtroom will emerge weakened and fewer capable of face the gravest international threats.
Khan, a distinguished British lawyer, has been on voluntary depart to struggle the allegations since May 2025. He stays suspended from practising regulation within the UK, after the Bar Standards Board imposed an interim ban whereas it conducts its personal inquiry.
He was unable to attend the vote, held within the United Nations headquarters in New York, as a result of he’s barred from coming into the United States underneath sanctions imposed by the Trump administration over the ICC’s investigation into alleged warfare crimes by Israeli officers in Gaza.
Regardless of his removing, the controversy is unlikely to finish there.
The resolution follows a extremely delicate course of that has left the courtroom underneath intense scrutiny.
In May 2024, allegations that Khan had engaged in sexual misconduct involving a feminine employees member have been reported to the ICC by a 3rd get together.
The courtroom’s Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) opened an investigation, however the case was later closed after the alleged sufferer declined to take part.
Critics of the method argued that the investigation had been mishandled, undermining confidence within the IOM.
Investigators finally mentioned there was inadequate proof to substantiate the allegations.
A second referral was made in October 2024. The matter was then transferred to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which carried out a broader investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of authority.
That inquiry ran from November 2024 to December 2025 and generated greater than 5,000 pages of proof and testimony.
The OIOS findings have been subsequently reviewed by a panel of three judges tasked with advising whether or not Khan’s conduct amounted to critical misconduct, much less critical misconduct, or no misconduct.
The allegations have unfolded throughout a interval of remarkable stress on the ICC, coinciding with wider political tensions.
The United States imposed sanctions on Khan after he sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes linked to the warfare in Gaza.
Washington’s angle to the courtroom generally has change into more and more hostile in recent times.
Earlier this month, the US launched a brand new “whole‑of‑government” marketing campaign to dismantle the ICC “brick by brick” in what it calls a risk to American sovereignty, promising visa bans, asset freezes and diplomatic stress on allies to withdraw from the courtroom or reject its jurisdiction over their nationals.
The United States, Russia and Israel will not be members of the ICC. However, the courtroom can train jurisdiction over crimes dedicated by their nationals on the territory of ICC member states.
