Just the day before, Karim Khan said “how genuinely proud and thankful” he is for his team’s work, against the backdrop of “significant challenges” including “attempts to impact the work of the Court”, in his last public official act as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) before stepping down. The address – via video link – was given to the United Nations Security Council in New York (USA) on the situation in Libya.
In response the acting US alternate representative at the UNSC, John Kelley, used the opportunity to remind Khan of the Donald Trump’s administration sanctions on. Kelley accused the court of endangering “the safety and security of [US] citizens” and reiterated the promise to “vigorously use our sanctions tools against those who have pursued and facilitated ICC actions against America and our allies, including Israel”.
A day after, on Friday 16, 2025, the ICC Public Affairs Unit sent to the media a three-line statement announcing Khan’s “decision to take leave until the end” of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) investigation on his alleged sexual misconduct. On Sunday, the presidency of the Assembly of the States parties to the ICC said in another statement it “is confident that the work of the Court in the interest of justice, under the leadership of its presidency, the registrar and the deputy prosecutors, continues normally and without any interruptions.”
But it’s not as if the storm that has just broken was fully unpredictable.
“A harassment free environment”
Khan was elected prosecutor by the member states of the court in 2020. The British candidate had broad support, even though he was not on the original shortlist, and had been heavily criticised by some civil society for his previous role as defence counsel successfully stymying the ICC’s investigation in Kenya.
When sworn in, Khan promised “to foster cooperation and collaboration wherever possible” positioning the court as a part of a wider ecosystem of justice mechanisms and not isolated for the global politics. He was critical of previous practice saying that simply opening new preliminary examinations and investigations was not enough. We “cannot invest so much […] and achieve so little so often in the courtroom,” he said.
The then new prosecutor also promised “to repair what is broken” and in reference to a damning 2020 report into morale at the office of the prosecutor declared that “this office should be the best place in the world to work in” and that his staff “have the right to work in a harassment free environment”.
Drastic changes ensued under Khan’s leadership, including appointing two deputy prosecutors rather than one, and creating a new unified investigation and trial teams. He also modernised the mechanisms for collecting and sifting evidence submitted via the online portal by using extra money from states intended to encourage the Ukraine investigation.
“A wide range of attacks and threats”
But for a year now, Khan has been fighting a losing battle to head off allegations of sexual misconduct. He was first forced to publicly refute them last October Khan suggested at that point that the complaint against him could be seen as part of the pressures the court is under: “This is a moment in which myself and the International Criminal Court are subject to a wide range of attacks and threats”.
The original investigation into the allegation “received by a third party” last May, was held by the court’s Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) which said that “no investigation was necessary at this stage” after speaking with the alleged victim, who “refused to explicitly confirm or deny to the IOM the factual basis of what had been reported” and “declined to pursue a formal complaint,” meaning that investigators never spoke to Khan.
External and “transparent” investigation
In 2020, an officially appointed Independent Expert Review had found that many ICC staff did not trust the court’s own complaint mechanisms and were disinclined “to make complaints freely and willingly about, and to report officially, alleged impeachable conduct, especially by elected or senior officials.” The experts had recommended that investigations of elected officials, like the prosecutor, be conducted by “eminent and experienced non-sitting and independent judges.” But these proposed reforms have yet to be implemented.
Under pressure, the allegation raised against Khan was reopened in November 2024 and an external investigation was ordered by the president of the Assembly of States Parties, Päivi Kaukoranta (Finland). It is being conducted by the UN’s OIOS, who will send its report to her. Media have reported that the inquiry’s terms of reference now includes claims that Khan engaged in witness intimidation and retaliation against members of his staff. On Sunday the presidency promised the findings would be handled in a “transparent manner”.
“A totally new momentum”
Diplomatic sources confirmed to JI that states parties to the ICC had been willing to let the investigation take its course without asking Khan to step aside, but the matter came to a head this week, when media reports gave graphic details from the alleged victim’s testimony which went well beyond allegations of harassment.
Drop Site an investigative news outlet, “dedicated to exposing the crimes of the powerful”, suggests that the woman’s accusations – including direct quotes from her testimony included “months long grooming, psychological coercion, and sexual advances, which eventually escalated into ‘unwanted’ and ‘coerced’ sex that lasted nearly a year and continued even after she told Khan that his conduct had left her suicidal. The alleged acts include one episode, in April 2024, in which the prosecutor allegedly attempted to have sex with the woman while she pretended to be asleep in an effort to avoid him”.
These reports from several medias put “a totally new momentum” into the process, said one Hague-based diplomat. “There was a sense that the office of the prosecutor can no longer function as long as [Khan] is around. And that therefore he needs to take a leave of absence”. And the message was passed to Khan that he needed to make the move because otherwise the Assembly of the States parties would be prepared to suspend him.
“A total disaster”
It is not clear how long Khan will be absent from the court. The OIOS investigation has gone on for half a year and may finish before the summer recess. Several court staff, in addition to Khan and the alleged victim, have been interviewed according to sources familiar with the details. If Khan is found to have committed “serious misconduct” or a serious breach of his duties, he could be voted out on office by the courts’ state members.
Combine the cold feet of the courts funders, the reservations expressed by States Parties such as France following the issue of the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, the allegations against the prosecutor and the problems the court has around US sanctions, “this mix is, of course, a total disaster” said one diplomat to Justice Info. The court is waiting to see what may be in further US sanctions, after Trump imposed economic and travel sanctions against Khan in February this year.
A “troubling” timing?
The confluence of the court’s crises has not gone unnoticed, and some were certainly able to rejoice in the prosecutor’s troubles. US Senator Lindsey O. Graham and five co-senators raised, last November, questions to the ICC presidency about the combined timing of the “illegal” Palestine arrest warrant applications and the “cloud hanging over the prosecutor and his office” describing them as “troubling” and asking “whether there may have been a connection” between “the timing of a cancelled consultation with Israeli officials” and “the inquiry into allegations of misconduct against prosecutor Khan”. The six US senators asked for “full transparency on the matter to ensure there is no conflict of interest.”
Mouin Rabbani, co-editor for Jadaliyya, an online pro-Palestinian magazine, and non-resident fellow of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, is highly critical of the ICC’s Palestine investigation, alleging that Khan had been “dragging his feet” prior to the events of October 7. To Rabbani, Khan has first of all “waited a very long time to get on with his job”. “So, the accusation that’s now being made that this whole [Palestinian] case is a sham because he’s trying to cover up allegations of personal misconduct doesn’t really hold much water”.
Commentators have been warning that the Israel-Palestine investigation places the court in the forefront of world politics, and the cracks are showing as the pressure mount. “In the grand scheme of things, the fact that it exists at all is a miracle,” says Iva Vukusic, assistant professor at Utrecht University. She hopes that amidst the crises, something good may emerge: “I think that this is a historical opportunity, out of the terrible situation that the prosecution could find itself in if this is true, to lift itself out of these ashes with a better office.”
