Who is Karim Khan, the barrister at the centre of the ICC's internal crisis?

THE HAGUE - Karim Khan became one of the best-known international prosecutors in May 2024 when he announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, inserting the International Criminal Court into a confrontation with the United States.

ICC member states dismissed Khan on July 24 over allegations of sexual misconduct, two diplomatic sources told Reuters, in a vote at United Nations headquarters in New York. He has long faced criticism and endured political wrangling.

His first turn in the international media limelight was as defence lawyer during the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

On the opening day of the trial in 2007, Khan dramatically walked out of the courtroom against judges' orders after announcing Taylor had fired him.

Born in Edinburgh to a Pakistani dermatologist and a British nurse, Khan, 56, studied law in London.

He spent his early career in the UK prosecution service before becoming a legal adviser for the Office of the Prosecutor for the UN ad hoc war crimes tribunals for both the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda between 1997 and 2001.

Khan subsequently worked on ICC cases on Kenya, Sudan and Libya. He won dismissal of the case against Kenya's President William Ruto for post-election violence.

While he was the head of a UN team investigating Islamic State crimes in Iraq, Khan applied to become ICC prosecutor. An outsider candidate who did not make the shortlist, he won the job in 2021 after a campaign marked by intense political lobbying by the UK and African states.

When he took office, he travelled frequently to countries where the ICC was investigating, including Ukraine, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In 2023, the court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which resulted in Khan being convicted in a 2025 in-absentia trial in Russia.

Khan, who is a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, had made pursuing perpetrators of sexual crimes and defending the rights of children focal points in his time as ICC prosecutor.

In his speeches, Khan often stressed that he seeks to apply the law equally and fairly across all situations.

Backlash over Netanyahu warrants

In May 2024, Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu.

“No one can act with impunity,” Khan said in a video announcing the warrants for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The warrants, which ICC judges confirmed later that year, caused pushback not only from Israel and the United States but also from some ICC member states such as Italy and Hungary.

The US has since imposed sanctions on 11 court officials, including Khan, and on several non-governmental organisations working with the court on the Gaza case.

Amid the pressure on the court and Khan over the decision to seek arrest warrants, news broke in October 2024 that a junior lawyer in Khan's office had alleged sexual misconduct by Khan.

Khan has denied the allegations but went on leave in May 2025 because he said media scrutiny made it hard to focus on his job.

On June 8, the executive bureau of the ICC's governing body — made up of diplomats of member countries — issued a decision that found Khan had engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior lawyer and should be fired, documents seen by Reuters said.

In recent interviews, Khan and his lawyers have implied the misconduct allegations could be part of a political pressure campaign by Israel and its allies.

“He sought to scapegoat Israel in an attempt to divert attention from his own misconduct,” said Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. “The international community rejected that cynical attempt today.”

UN investigators dismissed suggestions the victim was linked to foreign intelligence agencies, according to ICC documents seen by Reuters.

ICC member states voted on July 24 to dismiss him, triggering an election for a new prosecutor.

France, the Netherlands and Norway have publicly said they supported his removal. REUTERS