ICC top prosecutor removed over sexual misconduct allegations

Members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have voted to dismiss Karim Khan as chief prosecutor for alleged sexual misconduct. Elected the ICC's third prosecutor in 2021, Khan was suspended last month. The decision to remove him was passed with 82 votes in favour. The court's oversight body found in June he had committed a 'serious breach of duty and serious misconduct' by engaging in an improper sexual relationship with a junior ICC staff member and seeking to stop her pursuing her complaint. Khan has repeatedly denied all the allegations against him. His lawyer said he would challenge 'the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms'. The entire process, however, goes beyond the fate of a single prosecutor and could reshape the world's only permanent war-crimes tribunal. The misconduct investigation has put the institution under a glaring spotlight, intensified divisions inside it and played out alongside an unprecedented campaign to weaken, and in fact dismantle, the ICC in its entirety. The fear among its supporters is that the court will emerge weakened and less able to face the gravest global threats. He was unable to attend the vote, held in the United Nations headquarters in New York, because he is barred from entering the United States under sanctions imposed by the Trump administration over the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli officials in Gaza. Washington's attitude to the court in general has become increasingly hostile in recent years. Earlier this month, the US launched a new 'whole-of-government' campaign to dismantle the ICC 'brick by brick' in what it calls a threat to American sovereignty, promising visa bans, asset freezes and diplomatic pressure on allies to withdraw from the court or reject its jurisdiction over their nationals.