ICC Member States Vote to Remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan
British lawyer, who served from 2021, removed over allegations of sexual assault against former assistant. 82 out of 125 member states voted for removal.
British lawyer, who served from 2021, removed over allegations of sexual assault against former assistant. 82 out of 125 member states voted for removal.
Member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) voted on Friday at a special session at the United Nations headquarters in New York to remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan. According to diplomatic sources cited by AFP, 82 out of 125 member states voted by secret ballot for his removal, surpassing the absolute majority of 63 votes required for such a decision. Only 13 states voted against removal, and 15 abstained.
Karim Khan, a 56-year-old British lawyer, took office as ICC Chief Prosecutor in 2021. Allegations of sexual assault against a former direct assistant, a Malaysian lawyer who agreed to speak to CNN only under the name Sarah, surfaced the previous year, and an investigation was formally launched in 2024. In May 2025, Khan stepped down from his position to defend himself against the charges, and in June 2026, he was suspended by the presidency of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), a 21-member body that oversees the court's work, which then convened Friday's session. The ICC is a permanent international criminal court based in The Hague that prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
The woman identified as Sarah described to CNN an "escalation of attempts" that resulted in a physical assault. "There is no way something can be consensual when there is such a difference in power," she said. "What many people do not understand is that Mr. Khan was not just my boss; he was everyone's boss." Khan categorically denies all allegations, and his lawyers published an open letter on platform X calling on member states not to remove him, arguing that the procedures that would allow him to defend himself were not respected.
President of the Assembly of States Parties Paivi Kaukoranta confirmed the voting results in a statement broadcast live on UN Web TV. She said that 82 states voted that the "elected official committed a serious misconduct and serious breach of duty by engaging in prohibited behavior towards a subordinate staff member." Khan's lawyers, however, warned that "independence has a price, and the Court's machinery can turn against its own officials whenever their independence becomes uncomfortable" -- a formulation that appears to allude to the high-profile cases Khan handled.
In 2024, Khan became internationally known when he successfully obtained ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza. The ICC also issued arrest warrants for several key Hamas leaders, the Palestinian militant organization, who have since been killed. Because of these warrants, Khan was targeted by U.S. sanctions, as were several ICC judges. Lawyers have suggested that the controversy surrounding those decisions may have influenced political will for his removal, but that claim has not been conclusively documented.
Stephen Rapp, former U.S. ambassador for war crimes issues, told AFP that "the evidence is more than sufficient for his removal" and that the ICC must remove Khan if it wants to maintain credibility. "If it doesn't, it could be the end of the court. It will destroy its credibility and make it even more vulnerable to these unfair attacks from the United States," Rapp said. Croatia is an ICC member, so decisions about the future and credibility of that court have indirect diplomatic and legal implications for Zagreb as well. Who will temporarily or permanently take over the position of Chief Prosecutor at the time of this article's publication had not been announced.
