Reuters: The ICC prosecutor who filed arrest warrant for Putin could be fired over harassment charges

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan, who filed an arrest warrant for Putin, could be fired over allegations of harassment. The ICCʼs Supervisory Board believes this should be done.

This is stated in a 27-page document from the ICC Supervisory Board, which Reuters received from anonymous officials.

The text alleges that prosecutor Karim Khan violated his official duties and "engaged in non-consensual sexual contact" with a female lawyer in his office. This had been going on since 2023.

Khan himself denies all the allegations, and his lawyers believe Khanʼs suspension from office while the case is being considered is illegal and unsupported by evidence.

The final decision on his resignation will be made by the 125 member states of the International Criminal Court at a vote in New York on July 24. The vote of at least 63 countries is required for dismissal.

Karim Khan has been the head of the ICC prosecutorʼs office since 2021. In 2023, he filed an arrest warrant for Putin over the deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. But even if Khan resigns, the warrant will remain in effect, ICC noted.

Charges against Karim Khan

The sexual harassment allegations against Karim Khan first emerged in late October 2024. Initially, information about this appeared in the anonymous X-account ICC Leaks, and later The Guardian and the Associated Press wrote about it.

ICC has an internal inspection system, the so-called Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM), which publishes a report every year. The 2024 report says that unnamed court employees reported that a senior official had harassed their colleague. The media claims that this is Khan.

The woman who reported the harassment did not want the UN to launch an investigation, but later asked the ICC Assembly of States Parties to examine the situation. In May 2025, The Wall Street Journal published excerpts of her testimony to the UN.

The woman, who has not been named, worked on ICC for six years before joining Khanʼs team in 2023. She claims that his courtship began shortly after that, during a work trip to London in March 2023.

According to her testimony, Khan repeatedly forced her to have sex without consent. She eventually confessed to Khan that she was having suicidal thoughts, after which he left her alone for a few weeks, but then started harassing her again. She also stated that Khan never used a condom.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Khan was questioned by UN investigators in the case on May 8 and 9. Khan went on administrative leave in May 2025 while the investigation continued.

Khan is involved in another scandal: in August 2025, he recused himself from the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela — all because his daughter-in-law, international criminal lawyer Venkateswari Alagendra, works on the defense team of the countryʼs President Nicolas Maduro.

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