The sexual misconduct controversy involving International Criminal Court (ICC) senior prosecutor Karim Khan, who is seeking to prosecute former President Rodrigo Duterte, is spreading like wildfire.
Several US senators have called for Khan and the ICC to come clean regarding the allegations. They said that any doubts about the reputation of Khan reflect on the credibility of ICC in the cases it handles.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is among the growing number of legislators seeking an ICC investigation.
“Until a thorough administrative investigation into the allegations of misconduct is concluded and the necessary actions are taken, there is a shadow cast on the prosecutor’s investigations. I urge the bodies of the ICC to take action under their authorities to remove any doubt, and to weigh their deliberations carefully,” Cardin said in a statement.
“It is no secret that I find the application for arrest warrants against Israeli officials inconsistent with the ICC’s principle of complementarity, and such inconsistency undermines its efforts to promote and uphold the rule of law globally,” Cardin added.
Six senators — three Democrats and three Republicans — sent a letter to Päivi Kaukoranta, president of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), which oversees the operations of the ICC.
The letter said answers are needed about what they called “the highly irregular and potentially illegal actions” taken by Khan and detailing their “two grave concerns” about the ICC’s chief prosecutor.
The first concern was the process Khan used to push for the issuance of arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, noting that Khan declined to engage with Israeli officials despite giving a bipartisan group of senators the impression that he intended to do so.
The signatories to the letter were led by Sen. Lindsey Graham and Senator Cardin, the latter the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was also signed by Senators John Thune, Richard Blumenthal, Joni Ernst and John Fetterman.
Graham raised the possibility that the prosecutor was influenced by extraneous factors.
If the allegations against Prosecutor Khan are true, the senators have asked the ASP to hold a vote to remove him from his position.
Over the last week, a new anonymous X handle has been tweeting details of an alleged complaint of sexual harassment against the ICC prosecutor. The allegations were reflected in a British newspaper article in which Karim Khan was “accused of misconduct amid harassment claims involving a female colleague.”
The United Kingdom’s popular publication, the Daily Mail, reported Khan’s denial of any wrongdoing and wrote that he “suggested a deliberate smear campaign, saying he and the court were being subjected ‘to a wide range of attacks and threats.’”
Khan’s own staff, however, is calling for an independent external investigation.
Senior ICC officials expressed concerns among court staff about the independence of an internal inquiry, with some fearing it could be used to retaliate against those who raised the alarm.
The prosecutor’s office also expressed concerns about a potential appearance of a conflict of interest as the incoming head of the court’s internal watchdog, known as the independent oversight mechanism (IOM), currently works for Khan.
Khan, a British barrister whose nine-year term as ICC prosecutor began in 2021, had convened a small group of close advisers to help deal with the crisis.
The prosecutor’s request for a new investigation came as the court’s governing body, which is made up of member states, is understood to be considering how the allegations should be investigated and what form an inquiry should take.
ICC sources said they believed the incoming head of the IOM could be conflicted and unable to oversee an investigation into the situation owing to his current role working under Khan.
The mid-ranking official, who was appointed by the governing body, will take up his new post in early December after leaving a role in the prosecutor’s office where he leads some of its investigative activities.
“Having a former [prosecutor’s office] staff member as the IOM head is insane. Essentially you’re asking him to investigate his former boss,” one of the ICC staff indicated.
Khan’s request to the IOM was regarded internally as an attempt to seize the initiative and set the terms of an inquiry.
They pointed to his demand the IOM investigate “surrounding circumstances relating to the official processes of the court and what appears to be disinformation in addition to the allegations against him.”
