The prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, has been removed from office after the court’s governing body concluded in June that he had committed serious misconduct in connection to allegations of sexual abuse.
The ICC’s member states voted on Friday to oust the British prosecutor in an unprecedented move that concludes a damaging episode for the court two years after the allegations were first raised.
According to sources familiar with the result, 82 of the court’s 125 member states voted in favour of removing Khan at a special meeting at the UN’s headquarters in New York.
The vote follows a drawn-out disciplinary process that examined the abuse allegations, which were made by a woman who worked for Khan at the ICC.
Khan has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him, which include claims that he engaged in coercive and non-consensual sexual behaviour over an extended period.
His lawyers have criticised the disciplinary process as procedurally unfair. Responding to the vote, they said Khan would “challenge the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms”.
The prominent British barrister was elected in 2021 to serve a nine-year mandate running the court’s prosecution division, which is tasked with investigating and bringing to trial individuals accused of atrocities.
During his tenure, Khan’s decisions to obtain arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, raised the ICC’s profile and thrust it into the crosshairs of major powers.
The warrants, issued by judges, are unaffected by his removal. However, the court’s prosecution division, which has about 400 staff, has been left bruised by a protracted scandal and convoluted process to resolve the matter.
Last month, the executive committee of the ICC’s governing body suspended Khan after concluding he had committed serious misconduct in connection to the sexual abuse claims, referring the outcome to member states for a decision on whether to permanently remove him.
In a closed-door session on Friday, diplomats voted after reviewing the findings of the executive committee, alongside a fact-finding report by a UN watchdog and a legal analysis of its investigation by a panel of judges.
Thirteen member states voted against removing Khan in the secret ballot, while 11 countries abstained.
After the allegations first emerged in 2024, Khan’s representatives have sought to suggest the claims may be part of a plot to discredit him in response to his 2024 decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his then defence minister.
In a report detailing the outcome of the disciplinary process against Khan, the ICC’s governing body found there was no evidence to support claims the woman was “being used by third parties, including intelligence agencies”.
Last week, the staffer spoke out against claims she was some sort of “state agent” in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. She said: “My complaint was because of what happened to me, not for any other reason.”
Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights’ representative to the ICC, said the vote was a testament to the complainant’s “extraordinary courage in coming forward, despite everything she risked in doing so”.
Khan also faced sexual misconduct allegations from a second woman. She came forward to the Guardian last year and accused Khan of mistreating her while she was working for him as an intern earlier in his career.
Khan lawyers have previously said he categorically denies having “harassed or mistreated any individual”.
In a statement, his lawyer Tayab Ali said: “Khan’s removal was determined by a process in which he was never given a fair opportunity to be heard.” He said the decision was “unsupported by any lawful or properly reasoned finding”.
Khan’s dismissal comes as the court faces an array of pressures, including renewed threats from the US. The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on several ICC judges and prosecutors and last week vowed to “systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate”.
Senior officials at the court’s headquarters in The Hague do not expect the US government’s hostility towards the court to diminish with a change in prosecutor.
Against this backdrop, the court must now appoint a new prosecutor. After Khan stepped aside last year pending an outcome to the disciplinary process, his two deputies took over the running of the court’s prosecution office.
Prosecutors are elected by the ICC’s member states. Some in the prosecution division believe one of the deputies should take over, while others feel it needs a fresh start after two years of turmoil.
