The prosecutor of the Worldwide Felony Court docket, Karim Khan, has stepped down briefly as an investigation by the United Nations into alleged sexual misconduct by him nears its finish, his workplace stated on Friday.
The transfer is unprecedented and there’s no clear process for changing Khan. The scenario creates added uncertainty for the ICC, which is already going through an existential disaster as a result of US sanctions over its arrest warrants for Israeli officers.
Khan’s workplace stated the prosecutor had taken go away till the tip of the investigation by the UN Workplace of Inside Oversight Providers.
The ICC’s two deputy prosecutors would take over his duties within the meantime, it added.
Khan’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to a written request for remark.
The prosecutor has denied allegations of misconduct that have been reported to the court docket’s governing physique in October final 12 months.
When the allegations in opposition to Khan emerged, a number of NGOs and ICC employees members referred to as for the prosecutor to step down briefly throughout the investigation, however the prosecutor stayed on.
Sources, who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate a delicate matter, instructed Reuters that Khan had spoken to UN investigators final week in what’s believed to be the ultimate interview of the exterior investigation into the allegations which began in December.
It’s unclear when the probe will end and in addition what the end result shall be and what it might imply.
Khan stepping down from his place got here days after a Wall Avenue Journal report said that the ICC determined to hunt arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and different Israeli officers only after Khan was accused of sexual assault.
A Malaysian lawyer who accompanied Khan on a number of abroad journeys instructed UN investigators that he coerced her into non-consensual sexual encounters in New York, Paris, and The Hague, whereas she labored as a detailed aide to him.
Khan beforehand said that he hoped warrants would flip West in opposition to Israel
Days after the WSJ report, a senior Western diplomat, near the ICC case, instructed The Jerusalem Submit in an exclusive interview that Khan issued these warrants within the hope that “it might make the West flip in opposition to Israel.”
The diplomat requested to stay nameless and additional pressured his perception that Khan’s resolution to difficulty arrest warrants would additionally encourage public stress from pro-Palestinian teams.
Late final month, the prosecutor was warned in opposition to publicizing new arrest warrant requests in opposition to Israeli officers, in line with The Guardian, citing sources saying that Khan was readying to difficulty new requests for order in opposition to alleged Israeli suspects.
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