Member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have voted to remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan following allegations of sexual misconduct, according to multiple reports. Khan has denied the allegations.
According to sources familiar with the vote, 82 of the court’s 125 member states supported Khan’s dismissal.
Khan had led the effort to seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Israel has rejected the allegations against its leaders and has argued that Khan’s handling of the case was politically motivated and undermined by the serious accusations against him.
The development is particularly notable because it is the very same International Criminal Court whose arrest warrants New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani repeatedly cited when declaring that Netanyahu should be arrested if he visited New York. Although Mamdani later acknowledged he had no legal authority to carry out such an arrest, he continued to defend the ICC’s ruling and urged the U.S. government to act on it.
Following the vote, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Khan’s removal exposed what he called the prosecutor’s “moral bankruptcy” and renewed Israel’s demand that the ICC withdraw the warrants.
“The long-delayed removal of Karim Khan from the ICC for serious misconduct has exposed the moral bankruptcy of a corrupt Prosecutor who rushed to file scandalous arrest warrants against Israel’s PM and former DM, in an attempt to deflect from the serious misconduct he feared would be revealed,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
He added: “These were politicized and outrageous arrest warrants against elected leaders of a democracy with an independent legal system defending its citizens against terror. These warrants, issued against a country that is not even a member of the ICC, should never have been sought in the first place and should be revoked immediately.”
The ICC has not announced any changes to the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant following Khan’s removal.
No comments:
Post a Comment