The ICC's oversight body has recommended the dismissal of chief prosecutor Karim Khan after an internal probe found he conducted an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior staffer, Reuters reports. The recommendation will go to a vote of the court's 125 member states in New York on July 24. Khan denies the allegations.
The International Criminal Court's oversight body has formally recommended the dismissal of Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, and its 125 member states will vote on that recommendation when they convene in New York on July 24, Reuters reported Wednesday. The recommendation follows an internal investigation that found Khan had conducted an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior staffer. Khan denies the allegations and has been suspended from his role pending the vote.
As The Zioneer reported earlier Wednesday (at 15:28 Jerusalem), the executive board's recommendation was first disclosed by Reuters. That report followed a thread of escalating revelations: an earlier version of the same dispatch described an internal report citing evidence of a sexual relationship with a complainant and alleged non-consensual contact; a separate dispatch, also at 15:28, cited Israeli media quoting the internal report as detailing non-consensual sexual contact in Khan's office, home, and on work trips. Throughout the thread, the source of the findings has been consistent—Reuters and Israeli news outlets citing the internal probe—but the severity of the specific allegations has sharpened from an initial, single-source claim of an "inappropriate relationship" to a multi-source account of non-consensual contact and now a formal dismissal recommendation.
As The Zioneer has reported, the crisis has been building for weeks. On June 9, the ICC's executive bureau suspended Khan, ruling that 'serious misconduct' had occurred after an 18-month inquiry. On June 18, the court scheduled the July 24 dismissal vote; on June 19, i24NEWS reported the vote was set, and the UK's Solicitors Regulation Authority separately suspended Khan over a related sexual assault allegation.
The remaining open question is the outcome of the July 24 vote by the 125 member states. It is not yet clear whether the recommendation will be adopted, or what the impact is on the cases Khan has overseen, including war-crimes accusations brought against Israel.
8 developments
- ConfirmedICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan suspended after sexual misconduct inquiry
- StrongICC to vote next month on removing chief prosecutor Karim Khan
- DevelopingUK solicitors' watchdog suspends ICC prosecutor Karim Khan pending sexual assault probe
- DevelopingPolice internal affairs investigator testifies in external probe of Ben Gvir associates scandal
Source and signal
- Internal intake