The International Criminal Court voted Friday to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan, marking the first time the global tribunal’s leader has been ousted from office. The court’s 125 member states removed the British barrister by a large majority following sexual misconduct allegations that have shadowed the institution for nearly two years.
The Assembly of States Parties, the court’s oversight body, concluded that Khan had committed “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty,” its president Päivi Kaukoranta said. Khan was temporarily removed from his duties in June after a report by the executive committee of the oversight body found he had committed “serious misconduct.”
According to documents seen by the AP, Khan engaged in a sexual relationship with a female aide and tried to prevent her from pursuing her allegations. Khan disputes those findings and has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.
Early in Friday’s session, a motion brought by Sierra Leone that would have made it harder to oust Khan failed, and diplomats moved forward to the removal vote several hours ahead of schedule, according to three diplomats familiar with the proceedings.
The lengthy process pitted human rights advocates, staff and member states against one another at a time when the court was already facing external pressure from a U.S. campaign to dismantle it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the U.S. was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.” Rubio said he would pressure member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States.
The Trump administration has already brought sanctions against Khan and a dozen other ICC staff in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a statement: “Karim Khan believed that by launching a political witch hunt against Israel and issuing a politically motivated arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu, the world would ignore the grave sexual misconduct allegations against him. He was wrong.”
Hours after the vote, Venezuela announced it would withdraw from the court. Félix Plasencia, the country’s foreign affairs minister, said in a statement that Venezuela considers the court’s actions “reflect a demonstrated geographical bias, which has disproportionately concentrated its work on African and Latin American countries, to the detriment of the Global South.” Earlier this year, ICC prosecutors dropped an investigation into whether U.S. sanctions against Venezuela qualified as crimes against humanity, citing a lack of evidence. A separate investigation into possible crimes committed by Venezuelan security forces under former President Nicolás Maduro will continue.
The removal will have no immediate impact on the arrest warrants issued in 2024 for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity, which can only be withdrawn by ICC judges.
Iva Vukusic, a researcher at Utrecht University who has been following the process, told the AP that “political considerations have been folded into this, especially as it is the first time a prosecutor has pursued warrants against a Western ally.”