ICC members vote to remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan amid sexual misconduct allegations

https://p.dw.com/p/5HfRhA majority of the ICC's 125 members voted to dismiss Karim Khan as chief prosecutor of the global tribunal (FILE: February 12, 2024)Image: Piroschka van de Wouw/REUTERSAdvertisementInternational Criminal Court (ICC) members voted on Friday to dismiss Karim Khan as prosecutor ​following allegations ​of sexual misconduct, according to reports in the AP, Reuters and AFP news agencies.

What do we know so far? A British barrister, Khan was accused of sexual misconduct with a female aide, allegations which he has repeatedly denied. He had been temporarily removed from his duties at the ICC in June, following a report by the executive committee of the court's oversight body that found he had committed "serious misconduct."

ICC prosecutor suspended: can the court still serve justice?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In all, 82 of the court's ​125 member states voted in favor of Khan's removal while 13 voted against and 15 countries abstained. Khan, 56, made headlines in 2024 when he successfully applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war, as well as leading members of the Hamas militant group who have since been killed.

Hamas carried out the October 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel. All active ICC warrants will remain in place despite Khan's dismissal, because only ICC judges have the authority to withdraw warrants. Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch and now a visiting professor at Princeton University, wrote on X that the ICC states did "the right thing" by removing Khan.

More to come on this developing news Edited by: Wesley Dockery Advertisement Related topics