British prosecutor Karim Khan’s fate will be decided on Friday. (Photo: Peter Dejong / POOL / AFP)
The International Criminal Court’s 125 member states are meeting in New York on Friday to determine the fate of British prosecutor Karim Khan.
Khan was suspended last month, after a member of staff raised allegations of sexual assault against him. Khan vehemently denies the allegations.
The 56-year-old Briton already stepped down from his duties as a prosecutor in May last year due to the allegations made against him by one of his female colleagues.
An investigation into the allegations had already been launched the previous year.
Khan was finally suspended last month by a key governing body of the International Criminal Court, the 21-member bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP).
The bureau said at the time that the suspension was “not an indication of the final outcome” in the case, hence the bureau’s decision to convene Friday’s meeting at the UN headquarters in New York.
The International Criminal Court’s 125 member states will take part in a secret vote during a closed session on Friday, during which they will have to vote whether Khan should be relieved of his duties.
An absolute majority is required to relieve Khan of his duties.
The woman who made the allegations about Khan, a Malaysian lawyer who worked as Khan’s direct assistant, gave her version of events for the first time in an interview with CNN last week.
The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name Sarah, described an “escalation of efforts” that finally led to physical assault.
“There is no way that anything can happen with mutual consent when there is such a huge power imbalance,” she told CNN.
“What I think a lot of people don’t understand is that Mr. Khan wasn’t just my boss, he was everybody’s boss.”
Khan, who has been in office since 2021, denies the allegations.
In an open letter published on X this week, Khan’s lawyers requested the 125 member states not to remove Khan from his position. The lawyers argue in the letter that the procedures that allow Khan to defend himself have not been respected.
Khan’s legal team says the investigation, which has not been made public, has found no wrongdoing. The legal team argues that if Khan were to be removed from his post, “every future prosecutor will understand the lesson”.
“Independence comes at a price, and the machinery of the court can be turned against its own officials when their independence becomes inconvenient,” writes Khan’s legal team.
The letter appears to refer to a number of high-profile files handled by Khan.
Khan made headlines in 2024 when he successfully applied for warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war.
The International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued warrants for the arrest of several key Hamas leaders, who have since died.
US sanctions were imposed on Khan over the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Stephan Rapp, a former American ambassador for war crimes issues, believes that the process may not have been perfect, but the investigation into the allegations was thorough. “My own view is that the evidence is more than sufficient for his removal, and I think that he should be removed for the International Criminal Court to have any credibility,” Rapp told AFP ahead of Friday’s vote.
“If they don’t do it, it could be the end of the court,” says Rapp.
“It will destroy its (the court’s) credibility and make itself even more vulnerable to these unjust attacks from the United States.”