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International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan will step aside pending the conclusion of an internal probe into a misconduct allegation against him, his office said Friday.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services started started its investigation in November, with reports saying Khan was accused of sexual misconduct towards a member of his office.
Khan, 55, denies the allegations.
Khan "communicated his decision to take leave until the end" of the UN internal investigation, and his deputy prosecutors will run the office in his absence, it said in a statement.
The British lawyer took up his position with The Hague-based court in June 2021.
Throughout his career -- from courtrooms in England and Wales, to leading cases before international tribunals -- he has faced down controversy for his legal work.
Stints included defending Liberia's former president Charles Taylor against allegations of war crimes in Sierra Leone, Kenya's President William Ruto in a crimes-against-humanity case at the ICC that was eventually dropped, and the son of late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam.
Khan also secured ICC warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Hamas figures, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ICC investigates and prosecutes genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. While its rulings are binding on member countries, it lacks the ability to enforce them.
Khan was born in Scotland and studied undergraduate law at King's College, London.
His father was Pakistani, his mother British and he is a member of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim sect.
He became a practising lawyer in 1992, and went on to cut his teeth in international law at the former Yugoslav and Rwandan war crimes courts from 1997 to 2000.
He later represented survivors and relatives of victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia at its UN-backed court in the late 2000s.
His other roles have included a stint at The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to bring to justice the killers of Lebanese ex-PM Rafic Hariri in 2005.
