ICC member states to vote on prosecutor Karim Khan's future

The International Criminal Court's 125 member states are due to meet on Friday at UN headquarters in New York to decide whether prosecutor Karim Khan should be removed from office after allegations of sexual assault against a member of his staff. Khan firmly denies the accusations.

Khan, a 56-year-old Briton who has held the prosecutor's job since 2021, stepped back from his duties in May 2025 to fight the allegations, which were made by a female colleague after an inquiry began the previous year. Last month, the 21-member bureau of the Assembly of States Parties, a key governing body of the ICC, suspended him and called Friday's meeting. The bureau said at the time that the suspension was not an indication of the final outcome.

The decision on whether to relieve Khan of his duties will be made by secret ballot during a closed-door session of the 125 countries that are party to the court. An absolute majority is needed.

The alleged victim, a Malaysian lawyer who worked as Khan's direct assistant, gave her account publicly for the first time in an interview with CNN last week. The woman, who asked to be identified by her first name, Sarah, described what she called an escalation of attempts that resulted in physical assault. She told CNN that consent was not possible because of the power imbalance, saying Khan was not only her boss but everyone's boss.

Khan categorically denies the accusations. In an open letter published this week on X, his attorneys urged ICC member states not to remove him. They said procedures allowing Khan to defend himself had not been respected. They also said the investigation, which was not made public, did not conclusively prove wrongdoing. The lawyers argued that removing Khan would send a message that the court's machinery could be turned against its own officeholders when their independence becomes inconvenient.

The source said that statement appeared to refer to high-profile cases handled by Khan. In 2024, he successfully applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war. The ICC, based in The Hague, also issued arrest warrants for several key Hamas leaders, who have since been killed. Khan and several judges were targeted by US sanctions over the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Stephan Rapp, a former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said the process may have been imperfect but the investigation was thorough. He said he believed the evidence was more than sufficient to remove Khan and that the ICC's credibility depended on doing so.