A secret ballot at the United Nations has ended Karim Khan’s tenure as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, with ICC member states voting to dismiss him amid contested allegations that he sexually assaulted a female staff member, diplomatic sources told AFP.
Mr Khan, 56, had been suspended last month by a key ICC governing body ahead of the vote, in which 82 of the court’s 125 member states backed his removal — clearing the threshold of an absolute majority, the sources said.
According to those diplomatic accounts, just 13 states supported keeping Mr Khan in the post during the closed-door session at UN headquarters in New York. Another 15 member states abstained, and some did not attend the vote.
Mr Khan stepped back from his duties in May 2025 as he sought to contest the allegations, which were raised by a female colleague after an inquiry was opened the previous year.
The alleged victim — a Malaysian lawyer who served as Mr Khan’s direct assistant — described her account in an interview last week with CNN.
The woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name Sarah, told the network she experienced “an escalation of attempts” that culminated in physical assault.
“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,” she told CNN.
“What I think many people don’t understand is that Mr Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone’s boss.”
Mr Khan, who has led the prosecutor’s office since 2021, has categorically denied the accusations.
Before the vote, Paivi Kaukoranta, who heads the assembly that oversees the ICC, said the issue before member states was a “complex and sensitive disciplinary matter”.
“I trust that I can count on your cooperation to ensure that the assembly can address the matter in a way that fully respects the privacy and rights of the persons involved, as well as the court as an institution,” she said.
‘Credibility’
This week, Mr Khan’s lawyers appealed directly to member states in an open letter posted on X, urging them not to remove him and arguing that no wrongdoing had been proven.
The attorneys also cautioned that ousting a prosecutor in these circumstances could undermine the independence of future office-holders — a warning that appeared to point to Mr Khan’s most politically charged and widely publicised cases.
In 2024, he successfully sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant in connection with the Gaza war.
The Hague-based court also issued warrants for several key Hamas leaders, who have since been killed.
Mr Khan later became the target of US sanctions over the warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant, and several ICC judges were also sanctioned.
On X, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar called Mr Khan’s removal “long-delayed” and said the arrest warrants amounted to “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.
Stephan Rapp, a former US ambassador focused on war crimes, told AFP before the vote that he considered the evidence sufficient to justify removing Mr Khan.
“If they don’t, that may be the end of the court,” he said.
“It’ll destroy its credibility and make itself even more vulnerable to these unfair attacks from the United States.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a campaign against the ICC, threatening additional sanctions and accusing the court of posing “an intolerable threat to US sovereignty”.
