Worldwide Legal Courtroom chief prosecutor Karim Khan attends a United Nations Safety Council assembly on Sudan and South Sudan in January in New York Metropolis.
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the Worldwide Legal Courtroom in The Hague, who’s dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct, has briefly stepped apart as a United Nations investigation enters its ultimate stage, the court docket introduced Friday.
A senior official with data of the matter, talking anonymously as a result of they weren’t licensed to speak publicly concerning the case, additionally confirmed to NPR that Khan was on administrative depart whereas the U.N.’s Workplace of Inside Oversight Providers, which is main the investigation, completes its inquiry. The senior official stated there had been strain on Khan since final Might final 12 months, and high officers from the states events which are a part of the ICC have urged him to step down.
In an inside message despatched to representatives of ICC states events, Ambassador Päivi Kaukoranta of Finland wrote: “On 16 Might 2025, the Prosecutor communicated to [the Registrar] by way of e-mail his resolution to take depart till the top of the OIOS course of. In accordance with the Prosecutor’s message, the Deputy Prosecutors might be in command of the administration of the Workplace of the Prosecutor in the course of the Prosecutor’s absence.”
In response to NPR’s request for remark, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah despatched an announcement confirming Khan’s depart.
The Worldwide Federation for Human Rights welcomed Khan’s resolution to step apart, saying in an announcement that it was “the one accountable resolution” and calling his non permanent departure “important to defending the integrity of the court docket.”
Final week, the Wall Avenue Journal reported accusations in opposition to Khan by one in every of his former aides, a lawyer from Malaysia in her 30s. Citing testimony that the paper stated she gave to U.N. officers, the Journal reported that she accused him of getting forcible sexual activity along with her throughout missions to New York, Colombia, Congo, Chad and Paris, and at a residence owned by his spouse in The Hague, allegations Khan has denied.
NPR has not independently confirmed the allegations reported within the Wall Avenue Journal. NPR was unable to succeed in Khan’s legal professionals, however they’ve denied the accusations within the Wall Avenue Journal, which reported that “Khan, by means of his legal professionals, stated it was ‘categorically unfaithful that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any type.'”
In accordance with the paper, the lawyer from Malaysia testified to United Nations investigators that Khan initiated undesirable sexual contact over a number of months, finally coercing her into intercourse, and that she remained in her job as a result of she did not need to depart one of many world’s main human rights establishments. She additionally reported fearing that dropping her wage would go away her unable to pay her mom’s hospital payments for most cancers remedy.
The court docket’s announcement on Friday follows an inside assessment and comes amid mounting strain from the US. The Trump administration positioned sanctions on the ICC in February for what it termed “illegitimate and baseless actions concentrating on America and our shut ally Israel.”
Khan has been main the case by which the ICC issued arrest warrants final November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity within the Gaza Strip. An arrest warrant was additionally issued in November for a Hamas army commander, whose loss of life was later confirmed by Hamas.
Netanyahu and Gallant haven’t appeared earlier than the court docket. Israel denies allegations of conflict crimes associated to its army assaults in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel. With Khan’s non permanent departure, the way forward for the case seems unsure.
