The International Criminal Court in The Hague has set a vote for July 24 on whether to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan from office, after its oversight body concluded that allegations of serious misconduct against him are credible and not part of a conspiracy to undermine the court, according to diplomats and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The findings, compiled by diplomats from 21 countries that oversee the court, say Khan committed grave misconduct and should be dismissed. The report is being circulated among ICC members, 125 states in all, ahead of the vote expected at United Nations headquarters in New York.
According to sources familiar with the discussions, Khan told UN investigators that he believed the accusations were part of an Israeli intelligence operation by Mossad against him. His lawyers denied that he made such a claim and said he has not changed his position, insisting that he "unequivocally denied all allegations of misconduct when they were first raised."
His removal would not directly affect the arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Those warrants remain in force unless Israeli appeals persuade the ICC appeals judges to cancel them. Khan, his deputy prosecutors, and several ICC judges are already under U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump administration over the court's decision to issue those warrants, and officials in that administration also considered sanctions on the ICC itself, a move that could cripple the court by cutting it off from much of the global financial system.
