Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, has launched a public campaign declaring himself vindicated of sexual misconduct allegations. He gave interviews, made appearances, and repeatedly insisted that an internal review cleared his name. The reality is messier and far more troubling.
A year ago, Khan took leave while the ICC investigated claims from a lawyer in his office who accused him of a pattern of sexual coercion in hotel rooms during work trips, in his office, and at his home. The woman, a Malaysian lawyer, reported suicidal thoughts and was placed on suicide watch. Khan denies the allegations entirely.
The ICC member states, who hold ultimate authority over Khan's fate, handed the investigation to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). That office conducted interviews and collected testimony, then produced a 150-page report that did something remarkable: it refused to resolve the core dispute.
The OIOS detailed the complainant's testimony and Khan's denials side by side but made no credibility assessments. It did not decide who was telling the truth on the allegations of sexual coercion. It simply laid out contradictory accounts and walked away.
Khan told the OIOS he had never engaged in conduct with the complainant that "could be construed as inappropriate, unwelcome or abusive." He reinforced this denial in his recent interview with Mehdi Hasan. But the OIOS never judged whether that statement was credible against the complainant's detailed account of repeated misconduct.
The report then went to a three-judge panel tasked with assessing whether the allegations met the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The judges faced an impossible task: they were asked to evaluate non-existent findings. The panel criticized the OIOS for failing in its basic job but had no power to investigate themselves. They concluded the burden of proof was not met, since there were no proven facts to weigh.
Khan seized on this as exoneration. It was not. The judges explicitly noted their incomplete record "does not disprove the allegations of misconduct." But Khan continues telling the world he has been cleared.
The matter now sits with the ICC's 21-member executive bureau. Khan wants them to accept the judges' conclusion. But that conclusion rests on quicksand. The bureau has two real options: send the case back to the OIOS with orders to actually make credibility findings, or conduct that assessment themselves using the detailed written record already compiled.
Speed matters. The ICC has prosecuted cases in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and elsewhere without a functioning chief prosecutor for a year. The institutional cost is mounting. But a quick dismissal that ignores the substance of the allegations would be worse.
The woman who filed the complaint had reasons to stay silent. She feared retaliation from Khan. She worried about losing access to one of the world's most important human rights institutions. She needed her salary to pay medical bills for her dying mother. Yet she filed the complaint anyway. Why would someone accept that burden if nothing happened?
A more troubling dynamic now clouds the case: politics. Some Western governments reportedly want Khan gone because he issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Other governments support him for that same reason. The sexual misconduct allegations have become a proxy war over the Israel-Palestine investigation. That weaponization serves no one.
The bureau should ignore Khan's public relations tour and do its actual job. Either make the credibility findings the OIOS failed to make, or order the OIOS to do it with genuine urgency. The complainant deserves a real investigation, not a pantomime. Khan deserves actual clearing or removal, not this murky limbo. The ICC deserves a leader who can function.
Author James Rodriguez: "A year wasted on a procedure designed to avoid making hard calls is not a process any serious institution should tolerate."
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