The chief prosecutor of the worldwide legal court docket has secured arrest warrants in its most politically charged circumstances simply because the judicial physique grapples with an unprecedented disaster.
Karim Khan, whose request for warrants towards Israeli and Hamas leaders was granted on Thursday, is going through allegations of sexual misconduct, which will likely be examined by exterior investigators.
The inquiry, which is known to be in its early phases, will give attention to claims about Khan’s alleged conduct in the direction of a lady who labored straight for him. In October, the Guardian reported that the allegations included claims of undesirable sexual touching and “abuse” over an prolonged interval, in addition to of coercive behaviour and abuse of authority.
Attorneys for Khan, 54, have stated he “denies the entire of the allegations”. The alleged sufferer, a lawyer in her 30s who labored for Khan, has beforehand declined to remark.
Final week the ICC’s governing physique referred the allegations to a UN oversight watchdog, the Workplace of Inner Oversight Companies (OIOS), regardless of issues raised on the highest ranges of the court docket about Khan’s ties to the physique. Khan and the alleged sufferer are anticipated to be interviewed within the coming weeks.
The general public emergence of the allegations final month got here at an acutely delicate second for the ICC, and court docket officers stated they uncovered the court docket to assaults by these looking for to undermine its Palestine investigation.
Internally, Khan has confronted a backlash from lots of his personal workers in current weeks over his choice to disregard recommendation from a few of his most senior officers that he ought to take a go away of absence till the inquiry is resolved.
Makes an attempt by Khan and his representatives to counsel the allegations could also be a part of a smear marketing campaign towards him are understood to have brought about appreciable disquiet within the chief prosecutor’s workplace, which has about 450 workers.
In his response to the claims, Khan has prompt the sexual misconduct allegations could also be a part of a marketing campaign towards him, publicly referring to “a variety of assaults and threats” towards the court docket.
Nonetheless, because the Guardian reported final week, 5 ICC sources acquainted with the state of affairs stated that whereas Israel or its allies could also be making an attempt to benefit from the allegations, many inside Khan’s prime workforce didn’t consider that they had been invented by exterior actors hostile to the court docket.
Officers near Khan concluded earlier this yr that it was extremely unlikely the allegations have been a part of an espionage operation and no proof or intelligence has emerged of any involvement of an intelligence company, resembling Israel’s the Mossad.
After the allegations first emerged internally on the ICC in Might, Khan and one other official near him are stated to have urged the lady to disavow claims about his behaviour in the direction of her, a number of officers informed the Guardian final month. Khan denies this.
ICC sources stated the alleged sufferer had informed court docket authorities she would cooperate with an impartial exterior inquiry. A number of people who know the lady stated current efforts to politicise the state of affairs had been deeply distressing for her.
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