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The Worldwide Felony Courtroom prosecutor whose arrest warrant in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grew to become central to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s risk to arrest the Israeli chief was dismissed Friday after member states voted to take away him over sexual misconduct allegations.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, was eliminated after a vote by the Meeting of States Events, the courtroom’s 125-member governing physique, following disciplinary proceedings tied to allegations involving a junior feminine staffer in his workplace. Khan has denied wrongdoing.
The choice marked the primary time within the ICC’s historical past {that a} sitting chief prosecutor has been faraway from workplace. Khan’s removing comes days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a U.S. marketing campaign to “dismantle” the ICC, accusing the courtroom of threatening American sovereignty.
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Karim Khan is the ICC’s chief prosecutor. (Getty Pictures)
Khan grew to become one of many world’s most controversial prosecutors after pursuing ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s struggle in opposition to Hamas in Gaza. The ICC issued the warrants in November 2024, prompting fierce condemnation from Israel and the US, neither of which is a member of the courtroom.
The warrants additionally grew to become a flashpoint in New York politics after Mamdani repeatedly invoked the ICC case against Netanyahu. Mamdani stated throughout his marketing campaign that he would seek to arrest Netanyahu if the Israeli prime minister got here to New York, and later acknowledged as mayor that town lacks authority to enforce the warrant whereas calling on the federal authorities to take action.
The ICC, primarily based in The Hague in Holland, is a everlasting worldwide courtroom created underneath the Rome Statute to prosecute people accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and the crime of aggression when nationwide courts are unable or unwilling to behave.
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A common view of the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) constructing in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024. ((Photograph by Selman Aksunger/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures))
The allegations in opposition to Khan have triggered a disaster for the courtroom. Reuters reported that 82 of the ICC’s 125 member states voted in favor of his removing, exceeding absolutely the majority required. Khan had beforehand stepped apart in Could 2025 whereas a U.N. oversight investigation was underway and was suspended in June 2026 pending the ultimate vote.
The Related Press reported that the courtroom’s oversight physique discovered Khan had dedicated “severe misconduct.” The case concerned allegations from a feminine aide who stated Khan engaged in nonconsensual sexual conduct. Khan’s attorneys have denied the allegations and referred to as the removing course of legally flawed and unsupported by proof.
The girl, recognized solely as Sarah, went public in a CNN interview final week. “There isn’t a manner for one thing to be consensual when you’ve gotten such an influence disparity,” she advised CNN.
Khan’s authorized crew rejected the vote and stated he would problem the choice. Tayab Ali, companion at Bindmans LLP and head of Khan’s authorized crew, stated in a press release that the Meeting of States Events had disregarded due course of issues raised publicly by greater than 180 nongovernmental organizations and senior worldwide attorneys.
“The choice is unsupported by any lawful or correctly reasoned discovering that Mr Khan KC dedicated misconduct or breached his duties as Prosecutor,” Ali stated. “He has denied the allegations from the outset and continues to take action.” Ali stated the allegations had been investigated for greater than a yr by the U.N. Workplace of Inner Oversight Providers and argued that “there may be not a single discovering of misconduct, together with sexual misconduct, wherever within the OIOS report.” He additionally stated a three-judge panel unanimously decided in March 2026 that the factual findings made by OIOS didn’t set up misconduct or breach of responsibility by Khan.
Worldwide Felony Courtroom Prosecutor Karim Khan poses throughout an interview with AFP on the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal in Paris on February 7, 2024. The prosecutor of the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) needs to prosecute “environmental crimes” with out altering the courtroom’s statute, as a result of environmental harm is commonly the trigger or consequence of struggle crimes or crimes in opposition to humanity that the ICC can already decide, Karim Khan introduced on February 7, 2024, in an interview with AFP. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Pictures (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
Khan’s attorneys accused the Meeting of States Events of eradicating him by a politically pushed and procedurally unfair course of, saying Khan and his attorneys weren’t allowed to make formal submissions to the Meeting earlier than the vote.
“The Prosecutor of this Courtroom has been eliminated by an government vote whereas underneath sanctions and whereas the Courtroom is underneath immense political stress,” Ali stated.
Ali stated Khan “will problem the lawfulness and equity of the choice by all obtainable authorized mechanisms.”
New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a nonetheless picture taken from handout video launched on July 21, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli officials argued Friday that Khan’s removing undermined the legitimacy of the ICC’s actions in opposition to Netanyahu.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon advised Fox Information Digital that Khan believed “by launching a political witch hunt in opposition to Israel and issuing a politically-motivated arrest warrant in opposition to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the world would ignore the grave sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him.”
“He was flawed,” Danon stated. “He sought to scapegoat Israel in an try to divert consideration from his personal misconduct. The worldwide group rejected that cynical try as we speak.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan (proper).
Danon added, “The assaults in opposition to Israel, which had been supposed to distract from his disgraceful conduct, didn’t save Karim Khan, and they won’t assist Zohran Mamdani both.”
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, advised Fox Information Digital that Khan’s fall shouldn’t be seen as an remoted scandal. “He unexpectedly requested arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and protection minister inside weeks of discovering his sexual deviancy had been revealed. He accused his sufferer of being a Mossad agent. He and his attorneys always repeated the chorus that Israelis had been behind the accusations.”
Bayefsky claimed that Khan’s conduct has broken the ICC itself. “Now there’s a large marketing campaign to save lots of the ICC from Khan. On this logic, Khan’s anti-Israel fanaticism by no means tainted his investigation of Israel, his arrest warrant request in opposition to Israelis, his submissions to the ICC Courtroom, the proof he positioned earlier than the Courtroom, or the evaluation and conclusions of the ICC Courtroom that positioned their belief in him once they determined to grant his warrant requests.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon talking on the Common Meeting. (U.N. Photograph/ Eskinder Debebe)
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The ICC has not stated Khan’s removing impacts the Netanyahu and Gallant warrants, which had been issued by judges after Khan’s request.
Requests despatched to Khan’s workplace for remark weren’t answered by the point of publication.
