JERUSALEM—The scandal-plagued prosecutor for the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) has been compelled to step down, pending the result of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court docket introduced Friday. Khan has categorically denied the allegations in opposition to him.
Fox Information Digital despatched detailed press queries to the ICC and embattled prosecutor Karim Khan on Thursday, asking if the world court docket deliberate to oust him and whether or not he would resign.
The Associated Press reported the court docket mentioned in a press release that Khan on Friday ″communicated his choice to take go away till the top″ of an exterior investigation that might be carried by the Workplace of Inner Oversight Companies, the U.N. inner watchdog.
That very same report mentioned that girls’s rights teams welcomed the transfer, who had known as for him to step down after the allegations emerged final 12 months, however Khan initially resisted leaving.
ICC REQUESTS ARREST WARRANTS FOR NETANYAHU, HAMAS LEADERS OVER ‘WAR CRIMES’
Worldwide Prison Court docket Prosecutor Karim Khan poses throughout an interview with AFP on the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris on Feb. 7, 2024. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Final 12 months, an Related Press investigation discovered that two court docket workers in whom the alleged sufferer confided got here ahead with the accusation in Might. That was a couple of weeks earlier than Khan sought arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, his former Protection Minister, Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders on battle crimes expenses.
Israel has been waging an existential battle in opposition to the U.S.-designated terrorist motion, Hamas, because it invaded the Jewish state on October 7, 2023 and slaughtered greater than 1,200 folks, together with Americans.
Eugene Kontorovich, a authorized skilled and senior fellow at the Heritage Basis’s Margaret Thatcher Heart for Freedom, informed Fox Information Digital, “Eradicating Khan shouldn’t be sufficient. The whole tribunal, together with his prosecutorial staff and judges, enabled his blood libel. The scandal factors to the inherent defects of the establishment – a complete lack of accountability.”
Gaza Metropolis, Gaza on Feb. 02, 2025. (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
The Related Press reported that two co-workers in whom the girl confided on the ICC’s headquarters at The Hague reported Khan’s alleged misconduct in Might to the court docket’s unbiased watchdog, which says it interviewed the girl and ended its inquiry after 5 days when she opted in opposition to submitting a proper grievance. Khan himself wasn’t questioned on the time.
Whereas the court docket’s watchdog couldn’t decide wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to reduce contact with the girl to guard the rights of all concerned and safeguard the court docket’s integrity.
Khan has been dealing with rising strain on a number of fronts. U.S. President Donald Trump filed sanctions against Khan in February in relation to his Israel warrants. The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations on the court docket.
ICC REJECTS ISRAELI APPEALS, ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, YOAV GALLANT
Israeli PM and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant within the Kirya HQ in the course of the Strike in Iran (Avi Ohayon/ GPO)
The Wall Street Journal reported Khan’s decision to prosecute Netanyahu and the nation’s former Protection Minister raised “questions on whether or not Khan was aiming to guard himself from the sexual-assault allegations. The day earlier than saying the warrant utility, Khan abruptly canceled a visit to Israel and Gaza that he had beforehand mentioned was vital to make his choice.”
The Wall Avenue Journal reported the ICC worker’s graphic account of Khan allegedly raping the girl and sexually molesting her.
Legal professionals for Khan from the agency, Carter-Ruck Solicitors, informed Fox Information Digital on Friday that, “Our consumer does want to clarify, nevertheless, that it’s categorically unfaithful that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any form.”
Khan’s attorneys continued, “Our consumer is cooperating totally and transparently with the investigation by the U.N. Workplace of Inner Oversight Companies (OIOS) in relation to allegations which have been raised in opposition to him.”
With respect to data that Khan exploited the ICC to avoid wasting his personal pores and skin by charging Israeli leaders, Carter-Ruck Solicitors mentioned “The choice to announce that arrest warrants for people together with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant and leaders of Hamas, our consumer additionally needs to clarify that the truth that ICC Judges permitted the purposes for these warrants underscores that the proof on which they have been primarily based met the rigorous authorized threshold required underneath the Rome Statute. Options that the Prosecutor’s purposes have been linked to, or precipitated by, unrelated allegations of misconduct are completely false.”
HOUSE PASSES BILL THAT WOULD SANCTION INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR TRYING TO ARREST NETANYAHU
Hamas fighters stand in formation as Palestinians collect on a avenue to observe the handover of three Israeli hostages to a Pink Cross staff in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on Feb. 8, 2025 (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photographs)
Kontorovich mentioned in regards to the ICC case in opposition to Israeli leaders: “This basically undermines the integrity of the case, and in a traditional judicial system, would lead not simply to those expenses being thrown out, however forged doubt on all his prior circumstances.”
He continued that “On condition that the ICC has solely managed to safe remaining convictions in opposition to six folks for atrocity crimes in its quarter-century of existence, an enormous scandal of prosecutorial misconduct ought to be grounds for shutting down the establishment, not simply eradicating the prosecutor.”
When requested if the ICC plans to rescind the arrest warrants in opposition to the Israeli leaders, Fadi El-Abdallah, the spokesman for the ICC, informed Fox Information Digital that “As there’s a pending request, I can’t supply remark or hypothesis on its end result.”
El-Abdallah referred Fox Information Digital to Khan’s media staff relating to questions associated to his alleged sexual misconduct and allegations he broken the integrity of the world court docket.
A common view of the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC) constructing in The Hague, Netherlands on Apr. 30, 2024. (Selman Aksunger/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
Israel requested the ICC to withdraw the arrest warrants in early Might.
Fox Information Digital previously reported the British chief prosecutor, Khan, revealed an instructional essay in 2013 that recommended his personal present effort to arrest Netanyahu could be a travesty of justice as a result of the court docket can not present due course of to defendants.
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“Make no mistake: the issue is greater than Khan. They’re throwing him underneath the bus to guard the establishment and salvage their marketing campaign in opposition to Israel. However the rot runs deep. This was by no means about justice, it was at all times a few political agenda,” Hillel Neuer, a lawyer and UN Watch Govt Director, informed Fox Information Digital.
A spokesperson for the United Nations informed Fox Information Digital that it doesn’t touch upon the ICC as a result of it’s an unbiased judicial physique.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
