The independent regulatory body overseeing courtroom lawyers in Great Britain has issued an immediate suspension against Karim Khan, the embattled chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who is currently mired in a sexual misconduct scandal, Reuters reported Friday.
The domestic disciplinary action taken by the Bar Standards Board mirrors an institutional sidelining that occurred on June 8, when the ICC’s own governing bureau suspended the 56-year-old prosecutor.
The ICC has scheduled a vote for July 24 on whether to remove Khan from office.
The back-to-back suspensions have deepened a profound administrative crisis for the permanent war crimes tribunal, an institution already grappling with severe economic and political sanctions imposed by Washington over its investigations into both American military personnel and Israeli leadership.
According to the British regulator’s formal statement, the interim suspension takes effect immediately and is slated for an official evaluation by a review panel within the next four weeks.
Khan has repeatedly and forcefully rejected the underlying grievances. Following the announcement, his legal representatives released a statement dispatched to Reuters defending his record.
“He maintains that he has acted at all times fully in accordance with his professional obligations.”
Defenders of the prosecutor have publicly suggested that the timing and nature of the allegations are politically motivated, framing them as a retaliatory campaign designed to compromise his credibility after he sought international arrest warrants for high-level Israeli officials in relation to military operations in Gaza.
The Wall Street Journal reported last May that Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant within three weeks of the first accusations of sexual harassment against him, further fueling the accusations that the warrants were politically motivated.
While Khan stopped short of directly accusing Israel of being behind the allegations, his public denial mentioned that he and the ICC have been the targets of “a wide range of recent attacks and threats” in recent months.
However, a months-long investigation by The Guardian found no evidence of Israeli or other foreign involvement in the core allegations against Khan.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
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