The Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday how the woman reported that ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan allegedly attempted to pressure her into disavowing the sexual allegations she made against him by suggesting they would damage the Palestinian case.
Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, faces serious allegations of sexual assault from a female staff member – claims that emerged just weeks before he sought unprecedented arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the Gaza war. The woman alleges Khan sexually assaulted her multiple times across several countries, while Khan reportedly warned her that pursuing the allegations would damage "the justice of the victims" and told her to "think about the Palestinian arrest warrants," according to testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The timing has raised questions about whether Khan's decision to seek the warrants was influenced by the allegations against him, creating a crisis for the court as it pursues its most politically controversial case.
In a luxury hotel suite overlooking the United Nations headquarters in New York, a confrontation unfolded that would eventually threaten the stability of the International Criminal Court and inject a layer of personal scandal into one of the most politically charged investigations in its history, The Wall Street Journal reported. A female assistant in her 30s alleges that Karim Khan, the ICC's chief prosecutor, sexually assaulted her that December 2023 evening – one incident in what she describes as a pattern of abuse spanning multiple continents and several months.
The Malaysian lawyer, who often traveled with Khan, had asked to meet him at the Millennium Hilton hotel to urge him to ease his increasingly harsh treatment of staff, according to testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Instead, she claims Khan began touching her sexually, pulled her to the bed despite her attempts to leave, removed her pants and forced sexual intercourse – actions she alleges were part of an established pattern. The Wall Street Journal noted that the woman testified she felt "trapped" during these encounters, which allegedly occurred in locations including New York, Colombia, Congo, Chad, Paris and at Khan's residence in The Hague.
Just weeks after these allegations surfaced internally, Khan made the most dramatic move in the court's 23-year history – applying for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The timing has fueled questions about whether Khan was attempting to protect himself through this politically consequential decision, The Wall Street Journal reported. Through his lawyers, Khan has categorically denied any sexual misconduct and rejected any connection between the allegations and his decision on the Israeli warrants.
The Palestinian investigation was already fraught with geopolitical tension, pitting influential Western nations against a bloc of developing countries pushing for action against Israel. According to The Wall Street Journal, the warrant applications shored up support for Khan among anti-Israel ICC member nations that would likely back him if the allegations became public. The woman herself initially declined to cooperate with investigators, telling colleagues she didn't want to disrupt the Palestinian case by bringing a complaint against Khan.
"He always holds on to me and leads me to the bed," she said in testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "It's the feeling of being trapped." The woman remained in her position, The Wall Street Journal reported, because she didn't want to abandon an important role in human rights law and needed to pay her dying mother's medical bills. She also came to fear retaliation from Khan, according to current and former ICC officials interviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services is now investigating both the sexual assault allegations and claims that Khan attempted to intimidate the accuser and others who reported his conduct, The Wall Street Journal noted. Any action to remove Khan would require a majority vote of the court's 125 member nations, but the investigation's findings could fundamentally alter the trajectory of the court at a moment when its legitimacy is already being questioned by powerful non-member states including the United States, Russia, China and Israel.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Khan has suggested the allegations are part of a broader campaign to undermine the ICC. Court officials reportedly worried that Israeli intelligence was operating in The Hague as the Palestinian investigation intensified, and Russian intelligence agencies were also a concern due to the ICC's investigation of alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Security equipment was installed in the homes of senior prosecutors working on these cases in summer 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The political drama surrounding the allegations began to unfold on April 29, 2024, when Khan's accuser broke down to Thomas Lynch, an American lawyer and close adviser at the ICC, and another colleague, telling them Khan had been sexually abusing her for months, according to ICC officials cited by The Wall Street Journal. Lynch and two other aides confronted Khan at his home on May 2, informing him they were reporting the allegations to the court's human resources office.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Khan responded that he would have to resign, before adding: "But then people will think I'm running away from Palestine." The following day, Khan's office released a statement insisting that "all attempts to impede, intimidate, or improperly influence its officials cease immediately" – without specifically mentioning the allegations, The Wall Street Journal noted.
During this same period, Khan was preparing for a crucial trip to Israel and Gaza that he had been seeking for months. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had pressed Israeli officials to grant Khan access, seeing the visit as an opportunity to persuade him against seeking arrest warrants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Khan told Blinken on May 3 that his trip would provide important context before making any decision on the warrants.
Yet on May 19, Khan suddenly canceled his long-planned visit – then announced the warrant applications the very next day, The Wall Street Journal reported. This move defied the advice of senior prosecutors who wanted to avoid placing public pressure on the judges who would ultimately decide whether to approve the warrants.
The Wall Street Journal detailed how Khan allegedly tried to convince his accuser to disavow the allegations in the months that followed. "The casualties will unfortunately be three: You and your family, me and my family and the justice of the victims," Khan reportedly told the woman, according to a record of a call that is now part of the UN investigation. "Think about the Palestinian arrest warrants," she said he told her on another occasion, according to her testimony cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The woman alleges Khan's unwanted advances began during a work trip to London in March 2023, where he tried to hold her hand, The Wall Street Journal reported. She claims he first had nonconsensual sexual intercourse with her during a trip to Kinshasa in early June 2023. Back in The Hague, Khan would allegedly begin sexually touching her when she delivered documents to his home, according to her testimony.
As time passed, the emotional toll mounted. The woman told Khan she was having suicidal thoughts, which prompted him to leave her alone for several weeks before the alleged assaults resumed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Most recently, during an April 2024 trip to Venezuela and Colombia, Khan knocked on her hotel room door at 3 a.m. in Caracas. The next day in Bogotá, after she declined his invitation to his room claiming illness, Khan allegedly came to her room instead, lay down beside her and sexually assaulted her.
The ICC warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, which charge them with war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel's conduct in Gaza, have sparked international backlash. President Joe Biden expressed outrage, and President Donald Trump sanctioned Khan through an executive order shortly after taking office, The Wall Street Journal noted. Even traditional court supporters like France and Germany indicated they might not comply with an ICC request to arrest Netanyahu.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the evidence against Netanyahu and Gallant centers on statements they made in the days after the October 7 Hamas attack. Gallant announced Israel would impose a "complete siege" on Gaza, adding: "There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel." Netanyahu, after meeting with Biden on October 18, stated: "We will not allow humanitarian assistance in the form of food aid and medicines from our territory to the Gaza Strip." ICC prosecutors contend these statements demonstrate that blocking aid to Gaza was a deliberate tactic rather than a side effect of military operations.
The stakes for both Khan and the court itself remain extraordinarily high. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the woman accusing Khan told officials on a February conference call: "I held on for as long as I could because I didn't want to f— up the Palestinian arrest warrants." Yet Khan continues his work, meeting with officials and diplomats and traveling internationally while the investigation proceeds.
"People have told me to stand up against this man," the woman said during that February call, according to The Wall Street Journal, "yet everyone, including elected officials, seems to be very scared of him and says there is nothing we can do [about making him step aside] because he refuses."
