Representatives of the member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) voted on Friday to dismiss the court’s chief prosecutor, nearly two years after allegations against him first emerged.
Khan, a British barrister, was accused of misconduct involving a female aide. He has steadfastly denied the allegations.
Of the ICC’s 125 member states, 82 voted in favor of his dismissal. No chief prosecutor had previously been forced from office.
The Assembly of States Parties, the ICC’s governing and oversight body, concluded that Khan had committed “serious misconduct and a serious breach of duty”.
Khan, 56, had been suspended from his duties in June pending Friday’s vote. The suspension followed the executive committee’s report and recommendation that he be dismissed.
According to documents seen by AP, Khan had a sexual relationship with the woman and tried to prevent her from pursuing her allegations. He disputes those findings and denies any wrongdoing.
“Mr. Khan will challenge the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms”, his lawyer, Tayab Ali, said after the vote.
Khan’s dismissal automatically triggers the process of selecting his successor, although a new prosecutor is not expected to be elected before next year.
At the start of the session, a motion by Sierra Leone that would have made it harder to dismiss Khan failed. Diplomats then brought the vote forward by several hours, according to three diplomats familiar with the proceedings.
The United States’ Campaign Against the ICC
The lengthy proceedings have pitted human rights advocates, court staff and member states against one another at a time when the ICC is already under intense pressure, including from a renewed US campaign against the institution.
The court was established to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the United States was launching “a sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty”.
Rubio said he would pressure member states to leave the institution, impose sanctions on organizations that work with it and bar its staff from traveling to the United States. Countries that “enjoy the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella” would be called upon to reject the court’s jurisdiction over US citizens.
During a visit to the Philippines on Thursday, Rubio said there were “lunatics and crazies involved in the ICC” and insisted that no US political or military official would ever stand trial before the court.
Hours after the vote, Venezuela announced that it would withdraw from the ICC.
“Venezuela considers that the Court’s actions reflect a demonstrated geographical bias, which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South”, Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia said in a statement.
Earlier this year, ICC prosecutors dropped an investigation into whether US sanctions against Venezuela constituted crimes against humanity, citing insufficient evidence. A separate inquiry into possible crimes committed by Venezuelan security forces under former president Nicolás Maduro will continue.
Sanctions Over Netanyahu Warrant
The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on ICC judges and prosecutors, including Khan, in response to the court’s arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials and its earlier investigation into US personnel in Afghanistan.
The warrants accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.
“Karim Khan believed that by launching a political witch hunt against Israel and issuing a politically motivated arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu, the world would ignore the grave sexual misconduct allegations against him. He was wrong”, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a statement.
Experts said the accusations against Khan had become entwined with the ICC’s investigation into the war in Gaza.
“Political considerations have been folded into this, especially as it is the first time a prosecutor has pursued warrants against a Western ally”, Iva Vukusic, a researcher at Utrecht University who has been following the process, told AP.
Khan’s departure will have no immediate effect on the arrest warrants issued in 2024 for Netanyahu and Gallant. Only ICC judges have the authority to withdraw them.
(AP, Reuters, Luc)