Why ICC prosecutor Karim Khan was suspended – and what could happen next
Karim Khan taking the oath of office as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in June 2021
Imran Mulla writes in Middle East Eye on 9 June 2026:
The International Criminal Court is in an unprecedented state of limbo.
Its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has been suspended amid a campaign to remove him from office.
Member states of the bureau of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP), the ICC’s executive body, voted to suspend Khan on Monday after ignoring the outcome of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Khan – an investigation which they had themselves commissioned.
The judges appointed to review its findings cleared the prosecutor earlier this year, concluding that there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
But the ASP bureau opted to take the highly unconventional step of disregarding the findings and making their own assessment of the investigation instead.
Khan has already been on leave for over a year. He is sanctioned by the United States over his pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. His two deputies and numerous judges have also been sanctioned.
Last month, in an interview with Middle East Eye, Khan described the extraordinary intimidation and pressure he said he had faced in connection with his pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli ministers – including threats made by former British foreign secretary David Cameron and US Senator Lindsey Graham.
He accused the court’s governing body of waging a “dangerous” and biased campaign to remove him from office over unfounded sexual misconduct allegations and his investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes.