The British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, has spoken publicly for the first time since he went on extended leave last May pending the outcome of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him.
In an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo, Khan insisted he is innocent of all allegations against him, and said he has faced significant pressure and threats over his pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli officials – including from David Cameron, the then British foreign secretary, and US Senator Lindsey Graham.
Many of Khan’s comments appear to corroborate Middle East Eye’s previous exclusive reporting on efforts to undermine the prosecutor.
Last month, MEE reported that a panel of judges appointed by the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the ICC’s governing body, to review the UN investigation had concluded it had not established any “misconduct or breach of duty” by Khan.
But the chief prosecutor has still not returned to his duties. MEE later reported that a group of disproportionately western and European states voted at a bureau meeting to disregard the panel of judges and make their own assessment, based on the UN report.
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In the interview with Hasan, published on Wednesday, Khan said he had thought the judges’ conclusion “was the end of the matter. I thought obviously it would be closed straight away”.
“And I was really perplexed that the bureau didn’t close it straight away.”
Khan added, “I cooperated with the process, and the process exonerated me. I’m just concerned that…why is it not being closed straight away?”
Pressed on the sexual misconduct allegations against him, Khan said, “I’ve read the findings of the judges, and in the UN report, there are 137 findings.
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“Not one of those findings makes determinations or makes findings of conduct that could be characterised as inappropriate in any way, shape, or form. So it’s as clear as cut as that.”
He said that “it’s no longer about the allegations” and that “what is being proposed is for political state officials to somehow hear more representations to get the result [they want]. It is not acceptable”.
MEE has previously reported that the report by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) presented evidence and counter-evidence from complainants and Khan.
But according to the subsequent judges’ panel report, it “either did not reach conclusive factual determinations or concluded that such determinations were impossible based on the evidence collected”.
Intimidation campaign
The investigation into Khan has unfolded against the backdrop of an intensifying intimidation campaign targeting the prosecutor and the ICC itself over his office’s ongoing efforts to bring Gaza war crimes prosecutions against Israeli leaders.
Pressure on Khan started to build in April 2024, as he prepared to apply for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes.
Khan, his two deputies and a number of judges have been subjected to US sanctions.
MEE reported last August that pressure on the prosecutor involved threats and warnings directed at Khan by prominent politicians; close colleagues and family friends briefing against him; fears for his safety, prompted by a Mossad team’s presence in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual misconduct allegations.
Khan said in the interview that he has “never made allegations against anybody, any staff member, being members of Mossad or anything else. I don’t have a counterintelligence service”.
But he said that Netanyahu “has clearly amplified and has sought to instrumentalise, at the very least, these allegations. Repeatedly, he’s done that”.
Khan added that Russian foreign intelligence and Israeli intelligence had been “doing close surveillance of me”.
David Cameron
Hasan asked Khan about reports that former British Foreign Secretary Cameron threatened Khan in a phone call in April 2024 with the UK’s withdrawal from and defunding of the ICC if the court pursued arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
The 23 April 2024 phone call between Cameron and Khan was first reported by MEE in June last year.
“Yes, it’s been reported, and it’s true,” Khan said.
“I was sad. I wasn’t angry, I was sad. I’m not sure if it was [the] UK government, it was a very senior state official representing the UK government.”
Pressed on whether the official was Cameron, a Conservative peer and former British prime minister, Khan confirmed that it was.
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“It was a very difficult conversation,” he said. “I think he was quite upset.
“But the good news is, without being party political about it, the UK government, after it changed, there was a recommitment by Richard Hermer, the attorney general, and by the Labour government, to try to respect international law more than may have been the case previously.”
Khan, who is British, said: “The UK is a permanent member of the council. If it stands for anything, it must stand for international law, and rules and complying and doing the right thing.
“And if the UK does the right thing, it’ll be good for the UK, and it’ll be good for the international community. And if we don’t, it’ll be the kiss of death for the standing of this great country.”
Cameron has not previously responded to MEE’s requests for comment on the matter.
The British government has repeatedly refused to comment on Cameron’s phone call with Khan, including in response to calls by Labour MPs.
‘It’s baloney’
In the interview, Khan added that US Senator Graham said to him on a conference call in May 2024 that the ICC “is for Africa and thugs like Putin”, and not for Israel and the US.
MEE has previously reported on Graham’s remarks to Khan.
The prosecutor denied that he issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his then-defence minister, Gallant, in May 2024 to distract from misconduct allegations against him.
“Well, to use an American expression, unfortunately, it’s baloney,” he said.
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“I went to Rafah in October 2023, and I wasn’t allowed in. I went to Israel. I went to the kibbutzim, and I went to Ramallah in November 2023, and I said on Israeli television, on Palestinian television, comply now, don’t complain later.”
Khan said he had told the US and others that he would seek the warrants in March, before the allegations were made.
MEE has previously reported that on 24 March 2024, Khan travelled to the US, where he briefed senior US officials that he intended to apply for arrest warrants in the Palestine situation and that the applications were expected to be filed by the end of April.
The prosecutor’s future hangs in the balance. The ASP bureau is expected to make a final judgment on the misconduct allegations in early June.
Khan is expected to address the Oxford Union next Tuesday.