‘Handful’ of ICC states aim to sabotage report clearing Karim Khan
Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, taking the oath of office in June 2021
Sondos Asem reports in Middle East Eye on 23 March 2026:
A minority of members from the bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are calling for the findings of a judges’ report, which found no evidence of misconduct against ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, to be ignored, Middle East Eye can reveal.
MEE reported exclusively on Saturday that the court’s chief prosecutor had been cleared of any wrongdoing by a panel of three senior judges appointed by the bureau of the ASP, the ICC’s governing body, to review the findings of a United Nations investigation into complaints of alleged sexual misconduct.
MEE has since obtained a copy of the panel’s confidential report. The panel, composed of two male judges and one female judge, ruled unanimously that the UN’s Office for Internal Oversight Services’ (OIOS) investigation had not established any “misconduct or breach of duty” by Khan. But MEE understands that a minority of the 21 bureau members, mainly representatives from western states, are opposed to the panel’s report and are of the opinion that it should be dropped.
These members are seeking to block the panel’s report from the rest of the ASP and to re-characterise the findings based on their own assessment of the OIOS report, two senior diplomatic sources briefed on a recent bureau meeting told MEE.
The bureau met again on Monday afternoon to discuss its response to the judges’ report. MEE contacted ASP for comment, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
Following the publication of MEE’s report on Saturday, the Finnish president of the ASP, Paivi Kaukoranta, sent an internal email to ICC staff, saying that the case against Khan is ongoing and confidential.
“No decisions have been taken, and no weight should be given to recent media speculation,” she said.