THE CHIEF PROSECUTOR of the International Criminal Court is to temporarily step down pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

Karim Khan, a British lawyer who has served as ICC prosecutor since 2021, has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.

Last year, an Associated Press investigation found that two court employees in whom the alleged victim confided came forward with the accusation in May 2024.

The Wall Street Journal reported that an assistant, a woman in her 30s, told UN officials that Khan touched her in a sexual manner in December 2023.

She alleged the touching escalated into him forcing her to have sexual intercourse, according to the testimony cited by the newspaper.

Khan said he would cooperate with the investigation.

“It was with deep sadness that I understood reports of misconduct were to be aired publicly in relation to me,” Khan said at the time.

“There is no truth to suggestions of such misconduct,” he said.

The allegation was made public a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his then defence minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges. The three Hamas leaders have all since been killed.

The warrants were issued by the ICC for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant for the alleged war crimes of extermination and the use of starvation as a weapon of war during Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

Israel is accused of genocide in a separate case brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa. 

The ICC, which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands, said in a statement that Khan ″communicated his decision to take leave until the end″ of an external investigation being carried by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the United Nations’ internal watchdog.

While Khan is on leave, the court’s deputy prosecutors will be in charge of managing the prosecutor’s office.

Khan’s decision comes a day after the Associated Press reported that his email and bank accounts had been frozen, a result of US sanctions on the court following the issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

AP reported that US officials at the court have been told they risk being arrested if they return home. Some NGOs have also ceased dealing with the court as a result of the sanctions, which ICC officials and other bodies have said are hampering efforts to get justice for the victims of war crimes.

The ICC’s President Judge Tomoko Akane said the sanctions “constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims.”

Neither the US nor Israel recognise the ICC, which prosecutes individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICJ, also based in the Hague, deals with disputes between states.

Signatories to the treaty that established the ICC are obligated to arrest people wanted by the court, but some nations have flouted that obligation recently. 

Netanyahu visited Hungary in April and was not arrested. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said his country would be withdrawing from the ICC.

Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, extended an invitation to Netanyahu during his election campaign earlier this year, going against his predecessor Olaf Sholz’s promise to execute the warrant if the Israeli prime minister arrived in the country.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia last year in spite of an ICC warrant for his arrest over this military’s conduct during its invasion of Ukraine. 

With reporting from Press Association and AFP

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