ICC chief prosecutor dismissed over sexual misconduct claims

**Pete Ross** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross, and in the early hours of Saturday the 25th of July, these are our main stories. The International Criminal Court votes overwhelmingly to remove the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over sexual misconduct allegations. Ten people are killed in a Russian attack on a drone exhibition near the Ukrainian capital. And Israeli settlers attack several Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank after a major confrontation left six people dead.
Also in this podcast, wildfires continue to burn across parts of Spain and France, forcing over 150,000 people to evacuate.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:45)
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**Pete Ross** (0:56)
We hear about the ever growing popularity of Romantic, books blending romance and fantasy.
We begin with the International Criminal Court's decision to remove its chief prosecutor from office after the ICC's governing body concluded Karim Khan had committed serious misconduct in connection to allegations of sexual abuse. On Friday, 82 of the court's 125 member states voted in favor of ousting Mr. Khan at a special meeting at the UN's headquarters in New York.

**Paivi Kokoranta** (1:32)
The assembly has decided by majority of 82 state parties that the elected official prosecutor Karim Khan committed serious misconduct and a serious breach of duty under article 46.1 of the Rome Statute. And to remove the elected official prosecutor Karim Khan from office under article 46, paragraph 2b of the Rome Statute.

**Pete Ross** (1:59)
That's the president of the assembly of states parties to the International Criminal Court, Paivi Kokoranta. The vote brings to an end a more than two year saga that has put the court's reputation under intense scrutiny.
Mr. Khan has led the ICC for five years, during which it issued arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as some US officials, President Putin of Russia and the former president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. Laila Sadat, an international lawyer who worked as a special advisor to the ICC prosecutor for just over ten years until 2023, gave us her reaction to Mr. Khan's dismissal.

**Laila Sadat** (2:39)
I think that the prosecutor was his own worst enemy, if I can say so, in prolonging this, because I think had he decided a year ago to say, I deny the allegations, but for the good of the institution, I'm going to move forward, I think he could have had quite a dignified exit at that time. I think what happened is the process got prolonged. It turned into sort of a very litigious process with the prosecutor going to the media, with lawyers getting involved, with civil society being fractured. And for two years, this completely polarized the Assembly of States Parties and civil society organizations. And we saw Twitter battles happening.
And so I think today, the Assembly of States Parties had to make a very tough decision about what is needed to provide the unity that this court needs to survive going forward in the face of aggression from Washington and Moscow.

**Pete Ross** (3:36)
The BBC's Anna Holligan covers the court in The Hague and has been following Mr. Khan's case throughout.

**Anna Holligan** (3:42)
This is an unprecedented moment in the ICC's history, a time when the court has already been under intense scrutiny. So this was a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties, 125 member states of the ICC at the UN's headquarters in New York. Out of those 125 members, 82 voted in favor of dismissing Karim Khan. And in a brief statement at the end of the meeting, you heard there from the ASP president, she said that the ICC staff had been working through this uncertainty. She praised their navigation and dedication and said they demonstrated resolve to continue to function and discharge critical mandate and support victims of atrocity crimes the world over. But it's impossible to separate this court from the actions of its top prosecutor. And that's something now that's the supporters of the court are desperately battling with in the hope that this will enable them to draw some kind of line under the investigations which have been happening. So the allegations first emerged in 2024
These allegations centered on claims that he had sexually harassed a junior aide over more than a year, escalated to non-consensual sexual conduct, and then he tried to discourage her allegedly from pursuing a complaint. Or while he was, of course, the ICC's most powerful official. The woman whose lawyer who worked as his assistant had described a pattern that began with inappropriate familiarity on trips in his office, groping, putting his hand in her pocket, locking doors, asking her to lie on a hotel bed.