ICC members vote to dismiss embattled prosecutor Karim Khan

UNITED NATIONS, United States - International Criminal Court member states voted Friday to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan, diplomatic sources told AFP, following disputed allegations that he sexually assaulted a female member of his staff. Khan, 56, was suspended last month by a key governing body of the ICC ahead of the secret ballot in which 82 of 125 members voted to remove him, a motion that required an absolute majority. According to the sources, only 13 states voted for Khan to stay in his post during the closed-door session at the UN headquarters in New York. A further 15 members abstained, while some did not attend the vote. In 2024, he successfully applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war. The ICC, which is based in The Hague, also issued warrants for the arrest of several key leaders of Hamas, who have since been killed. Khan was the target of US sanctions over the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, as were several ICC judges. Gideon Saar, foreign minister of Israel, said on X that Khan's removal was 'long-delayed' and said the arrest warrants were 'an attempt to deflect from the serious misconduct he feared would be revealed.' 'These warrants, issued against a country that is not even a member of the ICC, should never have been sought in the first place and should be revoked immediately,' he said. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a campaign against the ICC, threatening more sanctions and accusing it of posing 'an intolerable threat to US sovereignty.'