The Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court voted on Friday to remove Karim Khan from his post as the court’s chief prosecutor, the first time a prosecutor has ever been ousted from the role.
By a large majority of the court’s 125 member states, the oversight body concluded Khan had committed “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty,” Assembly president Päivi Kaukoranta said. Khan, a British barrister who is 56, has repeatedly denied the allegations against him.
Khan was suspended from his duties in June while the Assembly’s executive committee investigated reports that he had a sexual relationship with a female aide and attempted to obstruct her from pursuing complaints. Documents reviewed by reporters alleged those actions; Khan disputes the committee’s findings.
A motion offered early in the session by Sierra Leone that would have raised the threshold for removing Khan failed, allowing delegates to proceed with the removal vote several hours ahead of schedule, diplomats familiar with the proceedings said.
The lengthy process has exposed deep divisions within the ICC community — between staff, human rights advocates and member states — at a time when the court is already confronting multiple political and operational challenges.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has said the United States would press a broad campaign against the ICC, calling on states to withdraw from the court, threatening sanctions on organizations that cooperate with it and proposing travel bans for court staff. The U.S. previously imposed sanctions on Khan and other ICC staff in response to warrants the court issued for some Israeli officials over the Gaza war and to its probes of alleged crimes by U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, issued a statement accusing Khan of launching a “political witch hunt” against Israel and suggesting the allegations against Khan were intended to be overlooked until the prosecutor pursued prominent Western targets.
Hours after the Assembly’s decision, Venezuela announced it would withdraw from the court. Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia said Venezuela believes the ICC has shown “geographical bias,” focusing disproportionately on African and Latin American cases. Earlier this year, ICC prosecutors said they were dropping an inquiry into whether U.S. sanctions against Venezuela amounted to crimes against humanity for lack of evidence; a separate investigation into alleged abuses by Venezuelan security forces under Nicolás Maduro will continue.
Legal experts noted Khan’s removal will not automatically alter existing arrest warrants. Warrants issued by ICC judges — including those announced for Israeli leaders in 2024 — can only be rescinded by the court’s judges, not by the prosecutor’s office.
The Assembly’s vote marks a significant and unprecedented moment for the ICC, raising questions about governance, accountability and the court’s ability to operate amid intense geopolitical pressure. The Assembly will now need to determine an interim arrangement and the process for selecting a successor to lead the prosecution of the world’s most serious crimes.