\n International Criminal Court member states voted Friday to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan, diplomatic sources told AFP, following disputed allegations that he sexually assaulted a female member of his staff.\n<\/p>\n
\n Khan, 56, was suspended last month by a key governing body of the ICC ahead of the secret ballot in which 82 of 125 members voted to remove him, a motion that required an absolute majority.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the sources, only 13 states voted for Khan to stay in his post during the closed-door session at the UN headquarters in New York. A further 15 members abstained, while some did not attend the vote.\n<\/p>\n
\n In May 2025, Khan stepped back from his duties to fight the allegations made by one of his female colleagues after an inquiry was launched the previous year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The alleged victim, a Malaysian lawyer who worked as Khan's direct assistant, gave her account of what happened in an interview last week with CNN.\n<\/p>\n
\n The woman, who asked to be identified by her first name Sarah, described \"an escalation of attempts\" that resulted in physical assault.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,\" she told CNN. \"What I think many people don't understand is that Mr Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone's boss.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Khan, who has been in the job since 2021, categorically denies the accusations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking before the vote, Paivi Kaukoranta, head of the assembly that oversees the ICC, described the case as a \"complex and sensitive disciplinary matter.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I trust that I can count on your cooperation to ensure that the assembly can address the matter in a way that fully respects the privacy and rights of the persons involved, as well as the court as an institution,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Credibility' -\n<\/p>\n
\n In an open letter published this week on X, Khan's attorneys called on ICC member states not to remove him, saying that no wrongdoing had been proven.\n<\/p>\n
\n They also warned the vote could endanger the independence of future prosecutors, an apparent reference to Khan's headline-grabbing cases.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2024, he successfully applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ICC, which is based in The Hague, also issued warrants for the arrest of several key leaders of Hamas, who have since been killed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Khan was the target of US sanctions over the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, as were several ICC judges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gideon Saar, foreign minister of Israel, said on X that Khan's removal was \"long-delayed\" and said the arrest warrants were \"an attempt to deflect from the serious misconduct he feared would be revealed.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"These 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,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before the vote, Stephan Rapp, a former US ambassador specializing in war crimes, told AFP he believed the evidence was sufficient to remove Khan from office.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"If they don't, that may be the end of the court,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It'll destroy its credibility and make itself even more vulnerable to these unfair attacks from the United States.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a campaign against the ICC, threatening more sanctions and accusing it of posing \"an intolerable threat to US sovereignty.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International Criminal Court member states voted Friday to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan, diplomatic sources told AFP, following disputed allegations that he sexually assaulted a female member of his staff. Khan, 56, was suspended last month by a key governing body of the ICC ahead of the secret ballot in which 82 of 125 members voted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-162337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n