Khan firmly rejects the accusations and emphasizes that he himself “previously requested the opening of an investigation into this case.”
Nov. 13. () –
The attorney general of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has assured that he collaborates with the external investigation opened by the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties of the organization into an alleged case of harassment of an employee, while he has firmly rejected the accusations, which came to light at the end of October.
Khan said that he “takes note” of the announcement made on Monday by the president of the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC, Paivi Kaukoranta, and noted that he himself “previously requested the opening of an investigation into this case.” “I welcome the opportunity to participate in the process,” he stated, in statements provided to Europa Press by his legal representation.
“At my request, a coordination group headed by deputy prosecutors, acting independently and not accountable to me, has already assumed responsibility for addressing all relevant matters connected to this matter internally, within the office, to ensure that the rights of all people are fully respected,” he concluded.
According to Kaukoranta, the Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) is already carrying out an investigation launched following a request from a third party and also from Khan himself. Although this body is competent for the investigation, the court specified that it “has no objection to exceptionally resorting to an external investigation” due to the “particular circumstances of the case.”
“Accordingly, an external investigation is being carried out to ensure a fully independent, impartial and fair process, in accordance with the legal framework of the ICC and the MSI and following a victim-centered approach,” said the Assembly president. of States Parties to the ICC, which stressed the “due respect for the privacy” of those involved.
At the end of October, the CFI opened an investigation to clarify whether its chief prosecutor engaged in some type of “malpractice” after the publication of information that reveals an alleged case of sexual harassment of an employee. Khan himself then came forward to deny the abuses attributed to him.
Khan, who has headed the ICC Prosecutor’s Office since 2021, “completely” denied the accusations and alleged that both he and the court are victims “of a wide range of attacks and threats” for their judicial work, including a petition in May for arrest warrants to be issued for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his until recently Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant.
The chief prosecutor of the ICC presented this request, on which the judges have not yet ruled, along with others against three senior officials of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – all of them dead or presumed dead by Israel -, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity following the October 7, 2023 attacks by the group and the subsequent Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip.
During Khan’s mandate, the ICC also issued arrest warrants in March 2023 against the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, on the presumption of war crimes for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from areas captured in the framework of the invasion of Ukraine, unleashed in February 2022.
In June of this same year, the court also issued new arrest warrants against former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Valeri Gerasimov – a position he has held since November 2012 – for their alleged responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine.
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