International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Kahn, who is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, has been accused of harassing a female co-worker, the Daily Mail reported.
The Mail's investigation found that the accusations were made in the weeks before Khan announced that he was seeking to arrest Israel's leaders. A female ICC official told a colleague of the harassment she allegedly was subjected to, and the colleague reported the incident to the ICC's senior managers.
The Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) questioned the woman, who decided not to file a formal complaint against Khan. The IOM did not open a full investigation and made several recommendations to "safeguard everyone's rights."
Khan denied the report, saying that he and the ICC are facing "a wide range of attacks and threats."
He claimed, "I absolutely can confirm there is no truth to suggestions of misconduct."
Paivi Kaukoranta, President of the Assembly of States Parties, the group that oversees the ICC, confirmed in a statement that the accusations were made by a co-worker against Khan.
'Following the conversation with the alleged victim, the IOM was not in a position to proceed with an investigation at that stage," Kaukoranta said. "The Court has a zero-tolerance policy towards prohibited conduct, such as harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority. Any reports of misconduct are taken very seriously, with full respect for the presumption of innocence, as well as the duty of care towards ICC personnel."
Khan announced in May that he is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Khan made the unusual move of announcing that he is seeking the warrants in an appearance on CNN.
Khan's announcement was criticized for creating an appearance of moral relativity between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization that committed the October 7 massacre and seeks the genocide of the Jewish people. He was also criticized for dispensing with the principle of complementarity by ignoring Israel's robust court and legal system which is capable of investigating itself and for politicizing the ICC by claiming jurisdiction over Israel despite Israel not being part of the court and Palestine not being a state.
Furthermore, Khan has refused to change any aspects of his warrants accusing Israel of pursuing a policy of starvation against the people of Gaza despite conclusive proof that there was no famine in Gaza, as reported by UN agencies in June.
Last month, it was reported that Khan and some of his staff face disciplinary investigations regarding their applications to arrest the two Israeli leaders.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) reported Khan and his staff to regulators, accusing them of not complying with their professional obligations. UKLFI stated that they were obliged to provide the Court with information and evidence that exonerates the accused, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant of the charges, including extensive information and evidence that has come to light since the applications were filed.
UKLFI provided extensive details of its concerns, backed by numerous cited documents, to the Prosecutor in a letter and annexes on 27 August 2024. In that letter, UKLFI expressed its dismay that the Prosecutor has asked the Court to ignore any information or evidence other than the material he originally filed in his applications for the arrest warrants, “despite [UKLFI] having shown that every allegation against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant set out in [the Prosecutor’s] published summary of them is false, and despite the highly relevant evidence that has emerged since [the Prosecutor] filed the Applications.”
In August, the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust filed an amicus curiae brief to the ICC in opposition to Khan's attempt to secure warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
The brief, which was written by Institute Director Prof. Anne Bayefsky, states, "The Prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against Israeli nationals exceeds this Court’s authority. The Prosecutor asks this Chamber to allow the Palestinian entity to delegate to this Court jurisdiction which it has never in history possessed itself, even though it does not meet the legal test for statehood, and then use that jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants against senior officials of a non-Party State which does not recognize its statehood. This violates the Rome Statute and fundamental principles of international law."