Karim Khan reportedly sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders a bit of over two weeks after the accusations have been made
Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan set in movement a plan to subject arrest warrants for Israeli management shortly after he confronted sexual misconduct allegations, The Wall Avenue Journal has reported, citing paperwork from a UN probe into the scandal.
Khan introduced he would file functions for arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu after which Protection Minister Yoav Gallant on Could 20 final yr, a mere two and a half weeks after he first discovered concerning the sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him, the Journal stated. “The timing of the announcement has spurred questions on whether or not Khan was aiming to guard himself from the sexual-assault allegations,” the newspaper recommended.
Based on the supplies the WSJ reviewed, Khan’s alleged sexual misconduct spree started in late 2023, when “the 55-year-old prosecutor was more and more lashing out at his group” after coming underneath a barrage of criticism. Professional-Palestine activists had labeled him a “genocide enabler” and accused the ICC of an absence of motion on the Gaza battle.
One in every of his assistants, a “lady in her 30s who typically traveled with him for her job” requested a gathering “to induce him to ease up,” based on the report. Khan allegedly invited her to his suite within the Millennium Hilton lodge subsequent to the UN, the place he sexually assaulted her.
“She stated she tried to go away the room a number of occasions, however he took her hand and ultimately pulled her to the mattress. Then he pulled off her pants and compelled sexual activity, based on the testimony,” the report reads.
The misconduct allegedly continued after the primary incident, with Khan performing “nonconsensual intercourse acts” on his staffer on a number of events throughout journeys to New York, Colombia, Congo, Chad and Paris, in addition to “at a residence owned by his spouse the place he stayed in The Hague,” based on the accuser’s testimony cited by the WSJ.
The girl, a lawyer from Malaysia, saved silent on the affair for some time, fearing retaliation from Khan and shedding her job. When the allegations turned identified inside the group, the prosecutor tried to press her into disavowing them and insisted the scandal would in the end harm the Gaza investigation, the girl claimed in her testimony.
Khan’s authorized representatives have rejected all allegations, stating it’s “categorically unfaithful that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any form.” The prosecutor beforehand pledged to cooperate “totally and transparently with the exterior investigation” and denied any “retaliatory habits” in opposition to his accuser or different staffers.
Israel requested the ICC to withdraw the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on November 21 final yr. The nation rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based courtroom, and likewise urged the physique to droop its investigation into alleged atrocities in Gaza altogether.
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