Reuters: ICC will investigate the case of its prosecutor Khan, who was accused of harassment

The International Criminal Courtʼs (ICC) governing body will launch an external investigation into its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over allegations of sexual harassment.

This was reported to Reuters by two sources familiar with the matter.

In an internal document sent to member states, Khan is called on to temporarily step down from his duties pending an investigation. It is proposed to temporarily entrust his duties to one of the deputies.

The undated and unsigned document, seen by Reuters, was sent to member countries by the ICC staff.

A Reuters source said the external investigation was agreed on Thursday at a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties, the main body of the courtʼs governing body.

A Reuters interlocutor claims that the alleged victim in Khanʼs case has no confidence in the independence of the courtʼs internal body, because its new head previously worked in Khanʼs office and this allegedly led to the leak of information about harassment allegations.

What preceded

Allegations of sexual harassment against Karim Khan became known at the end of October. First, information about this appeared in the anonymous X-account of the ICC Leaks, later The Guardian and the Associated Press wrote about it.

ICC has a system of internal inspection — the so-called Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM), which publishes a report every year. This yearʼs report said unnamed court officials reported that a high-ranking elected official had harassed their colleague. The media claim that it is about Khan.

The woman who reported the harassment did not want IOM to start an investigation, but later asked the Assembly of States Members of ICC to investigate the situation. Khan himself denies the allegations. He asked the head of IOM to investigate the allegations and promised to cooperate. It is possible that the results of the investigation will be announced at the General Assembly of the ICC member countries in the first half of December this year.

The scandal erupted amid a conflict between ICC and the US and Israel — ICC asked judges to issue arrest warrants for both members of Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Because of this, the USA threatened to impose sanctions against Karim Khan. The court also came under a massive cyberattack — in October, the Dutch police received a request to investigate possible Israeli intelligence interference in the courtʼs work.

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