The International Criminal Court suspended its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, with immediate effect on Tuesday after the court's governing body found he had committed serious misconduct involving nonconsensual sexual activity, a dramatic fall for the man who led the controversial push to arrest Israel's prime minister on war crimes charges.
Khan's suspension followed an 18-month investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving a lawyer in his own office. The Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute referred disciplinary proceedings against Khan to the full Assembly, suspended him from duty pending a final decision, and moved to convene a special session to consider the matter.
The timing could hardly be more consequential. Khan built his global profile by seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. The ICC issued those warrants in November 2024. Now the prosecutor behind them stands accused of the kind of conduct his own court was built to address, crimes committed by those in positions of power.
The findings against Khan moved through several layers of review, and the results were not uniform. A U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation found evidence supporting the sexual misconduct allegations. A separate judicial review, however, found the evidence was not enough to prove misconduct beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Assembly of States Parties Bureau overrode that second finding. It concluded that Khan had committed serious misconduct involving nonconsensual sexual activity and recommended his removal, as Fox News reported. The disciplinary probe described Khan's conduct as a "serious breach of duty."
Khan has denied wrongdoing. His lawyers called the decision "unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence."
The case now goes to a special session of the Assembly of States Parties, the ICC's 125-member governing body. No date for that session has been set.
The reaction from Jerusalem was swift and pointed. Netanyahu himself weighed in on X on Wednesday:
"Want to divert attention from sex crime accusations? Just make up war crime accusations against Israel! Classic. The ICC is corrupt to the core."
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told Fox News Digital that the suspension proves the ICC's problems run deeper than one man.
"The International Criminal Court's decision to immediately suspend the Chief Prosecutor in The Hague, Karim Khan, following the UN investigation, proves that this body is rotten to the core. Now is the time to cancel the absurd indictments against Prime Minister Netanyahu!"
Neither Israel nor the United States is a member of the ICC. Both countries rejected the court's jurisdiction and condemned the arrest warrants when they were issued, accusing the court of equating Israeli leaders with Hamas terrorists.
The United States had already moved against Khan before the suspension. The Trump administration sanctioned Khan in February 2025 over the court's actions targeting Israeli officials, acting under an executive order that authorized asset freezes and U.S. entry restrictions against ICC officials involved in actions against America or its allies. The Treasury Department later added Khan to its sanctions list.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Digital that the American position on the ICC "has never wavered."
"We oppose any overreach by the ICC against the United States or our allies. Period. And we expect our partners to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us against these outrageous actions."
Waltz acknowledged the irony of Khan's situation without wading into the specifics of the misconduct case.
"As for the situation with Prosecutor Karim Khan, this is a bit rich that this prosecutor sought to jail a democratically elected prime minister and now we are tracking his immediate suspension and the ongoing disciplinary proceedings."
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, offered a broader indictment of the institution itself. She told Fox News Digital that the scandal has damaged the credibility of the entire court, not just Khan's office.
"The astounding story of the world's International Criminal Court and its lead prosecutor headed by a criminal, an alleged rapist, is not just about one rotten apple. The entire ICC machine let the process to hold Khan to account drag on for two years after his crimes were first reported."
Bayefsky argued that the court's actions against Israeli officials deserve fresh scrutiny in light of Khan's suspension. She pointed to what she described as a self-serving motive behind the warrants.
"ICC judges decided that Khan's efforts to criminalize Israel's Prime Minister and Defense Minister weren't tainted by the clear evidence that Khan was trying desperately to use his attack on Israelis to save himself. Khan has taken the credibility of the whole shameful ICC apparatus down with him."
That charge, that Khan weaponized the Netanyahu warrants to distract from his own legal exposure, is one Israeli officials and their allies have pressed for months. The timeline lends it at least surface plausibility: the misconduct allegations were under investigation well before the warrants were issued.
The ICC Presidency issued a statement affirming its commitment to "independent and impartial proceedings," recognition and redress for victims of mass atrocities, and the "dignity, rights and aspirations" of court personnel. The statement called the ICC "one of the most significant achievements of human civilisation" and said the court has a duty to protect "the proper functioning of the Court as a whole and its reputation."
Notably, the court did not say whether Khan's suspension would affect the cases involving Netanyahu and Gallant.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, told Fox News Digital that the governing body "appears to be taking this seriously" but cautioned that the decision is confidential. She urged member states to "continue to support the court in its important work across its docket."
The final decision on Khan's fate rests with the full Assembly of States Parties. A special session must be convened, but no date has been announced. The ICC Presidency asked the Assembly to "conclude the process with the highest priority."
Khan's lawyers have signaled they will fight the proceedings. The court has not addressed whether a new prosecutor would revisit, modify, or drop the warrants against Israeli leaders. That question now hangs over every case Khan touched.
For an institution that styles itself as the conscience of the international order, the facts here are difficult to explain away. The man who sought to put a democratically elected head of state behind bars now stands accused of the kind of conduct that belongs in a criminal docket, and the court he led apparently let the allegations linger for two years before acting.
Accountability, it turns out, is easier to demand of others than to practice at home.
