ICC member states oust chief prosecutor Karim Khan over rape allegations

Member states of the International Criminal Court voted Friday to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan following disciplinary proceedings over allegations of sexual misconduct, marking the first time the tribunal has ousted its top prosecutor.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed the decision, saying Khan had sought arrest warrants against Israeli leaders partly to divert attention from the allegations against him.

“The long-delayed removal of Karim Khan from the ICC for serious misconduct has exposed the moral bankruptcy of a corrupt prosecutor who rushed to file scandalous arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, in an attempt to deflect from the serious misconduct he feared would be revealed,” Sa’ar said.

He slammed the warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant as “politicized and outrageous,” arguing that they targeted elected officials of a democracy with an independent judicial system that was defending its citizens against terrorism.

“The warrants, issued against a country that is not even a member of the ICC, should never have been sought in the first place and should be revoked immediately,” Sa’ar added.

Representatives of the court’s 125 member states approved Khan’s removal by a large majority. The 56-year-old British barrister had already been suspended from his duties in June after the executive committee of the ICC’s oversight body concluded that he had committed “serious misconduct.”

Khan was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct involving a female aide and of attempting to discourage her from pursuing the allegations. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said Khan had wrongly assumed that his campaign against Israel would shield him from scrutiny.

“Karim Khan believed that by launching a political witch hunt against Israel and issuing a politically motivated arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu, the world would ignore the grave sexual misconduct allegations against him. He was wrong,” Danon said.

Khan sought the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in May 2024 over Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war. The court issued the warrants in November of that year, accusing the two men of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel rejected the accusations and challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction, noting that it is not a member of the court.