The ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, will be disciplined for misconduct

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Court of Justice, who prosecuted Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is facing disciplinary action over allegations of sexual misconduct.

After more than a year of investigation into allegations that Karim Khan had sexual misconduct with an officer under him, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) voted to continue Khan’s disciplinary action, Reuters reported.

According to the New York Times, the alleged victim disclosed the affair with Khan to her husband and several associates in April 2024. After the associates confronted Khan in May, the jury’s report cites a witness who noted that Khan “jumped into the ‘lifestyle’ of another narrative when another colleague who was present said he ‘suspected Mossad involvement in the cover-up.’

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A few weeks later, Khan filed papers to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Trump administration approved Khan in February 2025 in response to war crimes charges against Israeli officials.

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University, told Fox News Digital that the fact that Khan “specifically blamed the Mossad for his problems shows that he is deeply in trouble and that the investigation he instituted…in any normal legal system would be dismissed with extreme prejudice.”

He said it was a sign of how “broken” the ICC was that such a politicized investigation would be allowed to continue.

The disciplinary action took place as 15 member countries voted to continue disciplinary action against Khan, four voted against the group and two abstained. In a letter read aloud at the meeting, officials from the prosecutor’s office noted that they are not in favor of Khan continuing in his role as chief prosecutor.

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JERUSALEM – JULY 20: (—-PRODUCT ONLY GIFT CREDIT – ‘OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING CAMPAIGNS NO ADVERTISING – STILL KNOWN AS A SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS—-) Israel’s Defense Prime Minister Benjamin General of Staff Her Netahu Halevi (R), and Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) follows an Israeli warplane attack on Hudaydah Port in Yemen, which is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis on the Red Sea coast, from an operations center in Jerusalem on July 20, 2024. (Office of the Prime Minister of Israel/Anadolu)

The vote represented a reversal of a three-judge consensus that ruled last month that there was insufficient evidence to prove the allegations against Khan “beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to a New York Times report. The judges based on the findings of the United Nations investigation conducted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) received more than 5,000 pages of evidence. Although the UN’s investigative report revealed that Khan “had sexual relations without consent” with the employee, the jury’s report found that there was no evidence of misconduct.

In a press release, the Association of International Criminal Law Prosecutors (AICLP) noted the “structural flaws” outlined in the charges against Khan.

Among these is the Independent Oversight Mechanism, whose procedures were “inadequate” when it closed an investigation into the assault after the suspect “refused to file a formal complaint” and said he feared retaliation. “The court cannot prosecute the most serious crimes against individuals while tolerating a culture where its staff are not adequately protected,” the AICLP said.

Khan’s retaliation against the plaintiff’s support staff also affected the AICLP. “We recognize that the standard of fitness to lead the world’s leading criminal prosecution office is not simply the absence of misconduct proven beyond reasonable doubt,” the AICLP wrote. “It also includes the demonstrated power to command the trust of the agency’s own staff, and that trust, in the testimony now before the Assembly of States Parties, appears to have been deeply and publicly shattered.”

Flag with the logo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 29, 2022 in Den Haag, Netherlands. (Photos by Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi)

The AICLP believes that “a speedy, principled, and transparent decision is not only a matter of justice for the people directly affected, but a requirement to restore the integrity of the Office’s operation on which the cause of international criminal justice depends.”

Prior to the announcement of the Bureau’s decision to take disciplinary action against Khan, the ICC directed Fox News Digital to a press release in which the ASP President “spoke.”[d] concerns in recent media reports about the ongoing disciplinary process against the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.” The President of the ASP called for “due respect for the privacy and rights of all parties involved, and the integrity of the ongoing process.”

Peter Gallo, a former OIOS investigator, told Fox News Digital that “trying to deflect attention from the facts of the allegations by blaming Israel is an indication of an obvious anti-Israel bias, and reduces the ICC to a tool of political warfare rather than any kind of court of justice.”

Gallo noted that “the jury appears to have been distracted by the lack of sufficient evidence to meet the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard,” and asked why “a certain international government employee . [should] given ridiculously high credentials when lower-level employees don’t have it.”

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The ICC did not respond to follow-up questions about whether the investigation into Gallant and Netanyahu would continue if Khan was removed from office.

OIOS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on its report.

Reuters contributed to this report.