The Karim Khan saga: a timeline

The Karim Khan saga: a timeline

Member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are due to vote at the United Nations' headquarters in New York on Friday on whether to remove the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, from office – a first in the court’s 24-year history. 

The vote caps a saga stretching back more than two years, spanning sexual misconduct allegations Khan has consistently denied, a UN-led investigation, a judicial panel that unanimously cleared him, and a bureau that chose to override that finding and press ahead regardless.

The case has unfolded alongside a separate campaign of pressure on Khan and the court over his pursuit of war crimes warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, from a threat by Britain's then foreign secretary to defund the ICC, to sanctions imposed on Khan and dozens of ICC officials by the Trump administration, to the US secretary of state's public vow to "dismantle" the court.

Khan, a British barrister, is the ICC's third chief prosecutor since the court’s founding in 2002. 

Read more: The Karim Khan saga: a timeline

Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on 14 March 2025 (AFP/file photo) ...