ICC chief prosecutor pushed for charges on Netanyahu after facing sex assault allegations – WSJ

Karim Khan reportedly sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders a little over two weeks after the accusations were made

International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan set in motion a plan to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leadership shortly after he faced sexual misconduct allegations, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing documents from a UN probe into the scandal.

Khan announced he would file applications for arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on May 20 last year, a mere two and a half weeks after he first learned about the sexual misconduct allegations against him, the Journal said. “The timing of the announcement has spurred questions about whether Khan was aiming to protect himself from the sexual-assault allegations,” the newspaper suggested.

According to the materials the WSJ reviewed, Khan’s alleged sexual misconduct spree began in late 2023, when “the 55-year-old prosecutor was increasingly lashing out at his team” after coming under a barrage of criticism. Pro-Palestine activists had labeled him a “genocide enabler” and accused the ICC of a lack of action on the Gaza conflict.

One of his assistants, a “woman in her 30s who often traveled with him for her job” requested a meeting “to urge him to ease up,” according to the report. Khan allegedly invited her to his suite in the Millennium Hilton hotel next to the UN, where he sexually assaulted her.

“She said she attempted to leave the room several times, but he took her hand and eventually pulled her to the bed. Then he pulled off her pants and forced sexual intercourse, according to the testimony,” the report reads.

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The misconduct allegedly continued after the first incident, with Khan performing “nonconsensual sex acts” on his staffer on multiple occasions during trips to New York, Colombia, Congo, Chad and Paris, as well as “at a residence owned by his wife where he stayed in The Hague,” according to the accuser’s testimony cited by the WSJ.

The woman, a lawyer from Malaysia, kept silent on the affair for a while, fearing retaliation from Khan and losing her job. When the allegations became known within the organization, the prosecutor attempted to press her into disavowing them and insisted the scandal would ultimately hurt the Gaza investigation, the woman claimed in her testimony.

Khan’s legal representatives have rejected all allegations, stating it is “categorically untrue that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any kind.” The prosecutor previously pledged to cooperate “fully and transparently with the external investigation” and denied any “retaliatory behavior” against his accuser or other staffers.

Israel asked the ICC to withdraw the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on November 21 last year. The country rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court, and also urged the body to suspend its investigation into alleged atrocities in Gaza altogether.