The International Criminal Court suspended its chief prosecutor with immediate effect after the court's governing body found he had committed serious misconduct involving nonconsensual sexual activity, the same man who led the push for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Karim Khan, the Hague-based court's top prosecutor, was removed from duty pending a final decision by the ICC's 125-member Assembly of States Parties. The Bureau of the Assembly referred disciplinary proceedings against Khan to the full assembly and announced plans to convene a special session, though no date has been set.
The suspension caps an 18-month investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving a lawyer in Khan's office. Khan has denied wrongdoing. But the institutional damage is already done, and it reaches well beyond one man's conduct.
The disciplinary trail is tangled and revealing. A U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services investigation found evidence supporting the allegations against Khan, Fox News Digital reported. A separate judicial review, however, concluded the evidence was not enough to prove misconduct beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties went further than the judicial review. Reuters reported that the Bureau found Khan had committed serious misconduct involving nonconsensual sexual activity and recommended his removal. The Associated Press reported that the disciplinary probe found Khan had engaged in "serious misconduct" and a "serious breach of duty."
The ICC Presidency issued a statement urging the Assembly of States Parties to wrap up the process quickly.
"The Court respectfully invites the Assembly of the State Parties to conclude the process with the highest priority."
The Presidency added that the court's leadership remains committed to "independent and impartial proceedings" and to the "dignity, rights and aspirations" of court personnel. It described the ICC as "one of the most significant achievements of human civilisation" and cited concern for "the proper functioning of the Court as a whole and its reputation."
That last phrase may be the most honest thing in the statement. The court's reputation is exactly what is at stake.
Khan was not just any international bureaucrat. He was the prosecutor who requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. The ICC issued those warrants in November 2024, months after Khan first sought them.
Both Israel and the United States have rejected the ICC's jurisdiction. Neither country is a member of the court. Both condemned the warrants as overreach.
The court has not said whether Khan's suspension will affect the cases involving Netanyahu and Gallant. That silence is itself notable. If the lead prosecutor behind the most politically charged warrants in the court's recent history is now suspended for sexual misconduct, the legitimacy of those warrants is a fair question, one the court appears unwilling to address.
Netanyahu did not hold back. Writing on X the day after the suspension was announced, the Israeli prime minister drew a direct line between Khan's personal conduct and his prosecutorial decisions.
"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 confirmed deeper problems at the court.
"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!"
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Digital 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 did not resist pointing out the irony of Khan's situation.
"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. Of course, we aren't going to comment on the specifics of that case while it plays out."
The Trump administration had already moved against Khan before the suspension. In February 2025, the administration sanctioned Khan over the court's actions targeting Israeli officials. The executive order authorized asset freezes and U.S. entry restrictions against ICC officials involved in actions against the United States or its allies. The Treasury Department later added Khan to its sanctions list.
Those sanctions reflected a longstanding American skepticism of the ICC, a skepticism that Khan's personal scandal now makes harder to dismiss as mere political posturing.
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital that the damage extends far beyond Khan himself.
"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 should face renewed scrutiny in light of the scandal.
"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 argument, that Khan may have escalated the Israel warrants to distract from his own legal exposure, is not proven. But it is no longer fringe. When a prosecutor facing allegations of nonconsensual sexual activity simultaneously pursues the most politically explosive warrants in his court's history, the timeline invites scrutiny. The ICC has done nothing visible to address that overlap.
Not everyone is ready to condemn the institution wholesale. Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, offered a more measured response.
"The fact that states parties appear to be taking this seriously is important but the decision is confidential so we can't comment on it. We will be monitoring next steps closely. Meanwhile, state parties should continue to support the court in its important work across its docket."
That framing, treat the misconduct finding as a personnel matter, keep supporting the court's broader mission, may satisfy some observers. But it sidesteps the harder question: whether a court that took 18 months to act on misconduct allegations against its own chief prosecutor has the institutional integrity to sit in judgment of sovereign leaders.
Several important questions remain open. The identity of the lawyer in Khan's office who was the subject of the allegations has not been publicly disclosed. The full text of the Bureau's disciplinary decision has not been released. The court has not addressed whether Khan's suspension affects the Netanyahu and Gallant cases. And no date has been set for the special session of the Assembly of States Parties that will render a final decision on Khan's future.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the International Criminal Court for comment.
The ICC was designed to hold the world's worst actors accountable for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Its moral authority depends entirely on the integrity of the people who run it. When the chief prosecutor is suspended for the very kind of misconduct the court was built to confront, no amount of soaring language about "human civilisation" can paper over the gap between what the institution claims to be and what it has shown itself to be.
An institution that cannot police its own prosecutor has no business policing the leaders of democracies.
