Judges clear ICC’s Karim Khan over sexual misconduct claims
Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the ICC (C), announces he is seeking arrest warrants from the court’s judges for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and DM Yoav Gallant, along with Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, 20 May 2024
Sondos Asem reports in Middle East Eye on 21 March 2026:
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been cleared of all wrongdoing by a panel of judges appointed to review the findings of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, Middle East Eye can exclusively reveal.
The highly confidential report by the panel of three judges was submitted to the ICC’s executive oversight body, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), on 9 March. It will not be made publicly available, and has not been seen by the majority of the court’s 125 member states.
Since December, the judges, who were appointed by the ASP, have been examining an external fact-finding report conducted by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into the allegations against Khan, which have unfolded in parallel with his office’s efforts to pursue a war crimes investigation against Israeli officials over the war in Gaza.
The role of the panel has been to provide independent legal advice to the bureau, based on the facts presented in the OIOS report, on whether Khan, who has strenuously denied all allegations, has committed serious misconduct, less serious misconduct, or no misconduct at all.
The unanimous conclusion of the judges is that the findings of the report “do not establish any misconduct or breach of duty,” according to two diplomatic sources who read the report and two other diplomatic sources briefed about it.
“The Panel is unanimously of the opinion that the factual findings by OIOS do not establish misconduct or breach of duty under the relevant framework,” the panel’s report concluded, according to the sources.
The panel’s conclusions are a significant development in the sexual misconduct investigation, which has left the court in an unprecedented state of limbo since Khan took voluntary leave last year amid uncertainty surrounding his future and leaks to the media about the allegations that he faced.