The International Criminal Court suspended its chief prosecutor with immediate effect this week after an 18-month sexual misconduct investigation, a move that hands fresh ammunition to critics who have long called the Hague-based tribunal a politicized institution unfit to judge sovereign democracies.
Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor who led the charge to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza, now faces disciplinary proceedings referred to the court’s 125-member governing body, the Assembly of States Parties. The Bureau of the Assembly made the decision and announced it would convene a special session, no date yet set, to render a final judgment on Khan’s fate.
The ICC Presidency confirmed the suspension in a Tuesday statement, Fox News Digital reported, saying the Bureau chose to suspend Khan “pending a final decision” and urged the Assembly to “conclude the process with the highest priority.”
Khan’s troubles trace back to allegations of sexual misconduct involving a lawyer in his own office. The U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services conducted an investigation that found evidence supporting the allegations, Reuters reported. A separate judicial review and a Bureau-level disciplinary probe followed. The Associated Press reported that the disciplinary probe concluded Khan had engaged in “serious misconduct” and a “serious breach of duty.”
Khan has denied wrongdoing. But the timeline raises uncomfortable questions for anyone who took the ICC’s pursuit of Netanyahu at face value.
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 misconduct allegations were first reported roughly two years ago, meaning the court’s internal machinery ground forward on Khan’s case even as Khan himself was pressing arrest warrants against the leaders of a democratic ally.
Bayefsky did not hold back:
“The entire ICC machine let the process to hold Khan to account drag on for two years after his crimes were first reported.”
She went further, arguing that ICC judges failed to consider whether Khan’s aggressive posture toward Israel was itself an attempt at self-preservation, a bid to generate enough political momentum to make him harder to remove.
“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.”
That claim remains her assessment, not an established finding. But the chronology she points to is real. Khan sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant months before the ICC formally issued them in November 2024. The misconduct investigation was already underway during that period.
Netanyahu posted on X the day after the suspension was announced. His message was blunt.
“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 the suspension validated what Israeli officials had been saying for months. When public officials face serious accusations of misconduct, the resulting legal fallout can reshape entire institutions. Danon framed the moment as an opportunity to revisit the warrants themselves:
“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!”
Neither the United States nor Israel is a member of the ICC, and both have rejected its jurisdiction. The court was created under the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression, but only when national courts are unable or unwilling to act. Critics have long argued the ICC selectively targets nations that lack the political clout to push back, while ignoring atrocities by powerful authoritarian regimes.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News Digital the American stance on the ICC “has never wavered.” His comments reflected the Trump administration’s posture, which has moved beyond rhetorical opposition to concrete action.
“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 addressed Khan’s suspension directly, calling it “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.” He added that the administration would not comment on the specifics of the case while it plays out.
The Trump administration had already sanctioned Khan in February 2025 over the court’s actions targeting Israeli officials. An 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 measures reflected a broader pattern: courts and international bodies have clashed repeatedly with U.S. executive authority on questions of sovereignty and jurisdiction.
The Presidency’s own statement tried to thread a needle, acknowledging the gravity of the situation while defending the institution. It called for “independent and impartial proceedings” and invoked the “dignity, rights and aspirations” of those involved. The Presidency described the ICC as “one of the most significant achievements of human civilisation” and said the court has a duty to protect “the proper functioning of the Court as a whole and its reputation.”
That last phrase may be the most telling. The ICC’s reputation is precisely what is at stake. A court that claims authority to arrest the elected leader of a democratic nation must itself be beyond reproach. When its top prosecutor stands accused of serious sexual misconduct, and when the institution’s own processes took two years to reach this point, the credibility gap is not a talking point. It is a structural problem.
Human Rights Watch took a more cautious line. Liz Evenson, the group’s international justice director, told Fox News Digital:
“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 statement acknowledges the seriousness of the proceedings while urging continued support for the court, a position that will strike many observers as premature, given that the full scope of the misconduct findings has not been made public. The U.N. investigation’s full text, the judicial review, and the Bureau’s detailed findings all remain confidential.
Whether Khan’s suspension will affect the outstanding arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant is an open question. The court has not addressed that issue publicly. The warrants were issued by ICC judges, not by the prosecutor alone, so they may survive Khan’s departure from the scene. But the political and moral authority behind them has taken a serious hit.
When accountability institutions issue controversial orders that defy common sense, public trust erodes fast. The ICC now faces that reality in its starkest form.
Bayefsky argued the scandal extends well beyond one individual. She told Fox News Digital that Khan “has taken the credibility of the whole shameful ICC apparatus down with him.” That is an advocate’s framing, but it captures a genuine concern shared across the political spectrum: international institutions that operate without meaningful democratic accountability can become vehicles for political agendas rather than instruments of justice.
The Assembly of States Parties now holds the final decision. A special session will be convened, though no date has been announced. Until then, Khan remains suspended, the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant remain outstanding, and the ICC’s claim to moral authority sits in limbo.
The facts are straightforward enough. The same courtroom that sought to put a democratically elected prime minister behind bars cannot keep its own house in order. Courtrooms lose their power the moment they lose their credibility, and the ICC just lost a great deal of both.
An institution that cannot police its own chief prosecutor has no business issuing arrest warrants for the leaders of free nations.
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