ICC Prosecutor, Under Investigation, Steps Aside Temporarily

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has stepped aside pending the conclusion of a probe into a misconduct allegation against him, his office said Friday, as media reports cite accusations of sexual misconduct.

News of Karim Khan's leave have plunged the ICC, already under fire from critics and targeted by US sanctions aimed at the prosecutor, into further uncertainty.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services announced its investigation in November, with reports saying Khan was accused of sexual misconduct towards a member of his office.

Khan, 55, denies the allegations.

Khan "communicated his decision to take leave until the end" of the UN internal investigation, and his deputy prosecutors will run the office in his absence, his office said in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal reported that an assistant, a woman in her 30s, told UN officials that Khan touched her in a sexual manner in December 2023.

She alleged the touching escalated into her him forcing her to have sexual intercourse, according to the testimony cited by the newspaper.

After allegations of misconduct became public, Khan said in October he would cooperate with any probe and denied wrongdoing.

"It was with deep sadness that I understood reports of misconduct were to be aired publicly in relation to me," Khan said.

"There is no truth to suggestions of such misconduct," he said in a statement mailed to AFP.

The British lawyer took up his position with The Hague-based court in June 2021.

Throughout his career -- from courtrooms in England and Wales, to leading cases before international tribunals -- he has faced down controversy for his legal work.

Stints included defending Liberia's former president Charles Taylor against allegations of war crimes in Sierra Leone, Kenya's President William Ruto in a crimes-against-humanity case at the ICC that was eventually dropped, and the son of late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam.

Khan also secured ICC warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Hamas figures, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC investigates and prosecutes genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. While its rulings are binding on member countries, it lacks the ability to enforce them.

Khan was born in Scotland and studied undergraduate law at King's College, London.

His father was Pakistani, his mother British and he is a member of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim sect.

He became a practising lawyer in 1992, and went on to cut his teeth in international law at the former Yugoslav and Rwandan war crimes courts from 1997 to 2000.

He later represented survivors and relatives of victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia at its UN-backed court in the late 2000s.

His other roles have included a stint at The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to bring to justice the killers of Lebanese ex-PM Rafic Hariri in 2005.