The Assembly of the 125 member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) removed Prosecutor General Karim Khan from his position today. The British lawyer, 56, was accused of sexual misconduct against a member of his staff and had been temporarily suspended from his duties in June.

In a secret ballot held during an extraordinary closed-door meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York, 82 member states voted to end Khan's mandate, citing "serious misconduct" and "serious breach of the duties of his office." The required threshold was 63 votes. Thirteen states voted against removal and 15 abstained, according to diplomatic sources.

Khan has consistently denied the accusations. One of his lawyers, Tayab Ali, announced on X that the dismissed prosecutor will challenge the legality and fairness of the decision "with all available legal mechanisms," reiterating that his client has always denied the allegations.

Khan's office was engaged in war crimes investigations involving high-ranking Israeli officials in connection with the conflict in the Gaza Strip, including arrest warrants requested against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel, which is not a member of the ICC, had publicly opposed the warrants. According to the website Axios, citing a senior Israeli official, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Israeli embassies worldwide lobbied member states in the days preceding the vote to support Khan's removal or at least abstain. After the vote, Sa'ar called the arrest warrants "politicized and outrageous" and called for their immediate revocation.

Khan is also subject to sanctions imposed by the US Trump administration, along with ten of his colleagues, which prevented him from entering the United States and attending the vote in person.