By: Fern Sidman

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is facing one of the gravest crises in its history following shocking revelations about its suspended chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who now stands accused of a pattern of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. According to a detailed investigation by The Times, the British barrister—once heralded as a leading advocate for international justice—has been accused of sexually assaulting a member of his own staff over an 11-month period, allegations that have sent shockwaves through diplomatic and legal circles across Europe.

As The Jewish Chronicle of the UK reported on Thursday, the accusations, which Khan has categorically denied as “demonstrably untrue,” have not only tarnished his personal reputation but have also cast a dark shadow over the very institution charged with upholding global standards of justice and accountability.

The victim, a Malaysian human rights lawyer identified under the pseudonym Aisha, served on Khan’s prosecutorial team and reportedly endured repeated sexual assaults and coercive encounters over the course of nearly a year. In a deeply disturbing account revealed by The Times and cited in The Jewish Chronicle report, Aisha’s husband, using the pseudonym Malik, described how his wife began exhibiting signs of psychological trauma and fear soon after joining Khan’s office.

“She called me and said, ‘something’s happened,’” Malik recalled. “The year before she was in a car crash, so I thought it was that from the sound of her voice. But when I look back, two things stood out—there was a huge difference in how she felt: working with Khan, and before Khan.”

According to Malik, his wife would frequently take her toothbrush to work, knowing she would have to wash and vomit after unwanted encounters with her boss. “She told me she’d go to the bathroom and vomit straight after he touched her,” he told The Times.

The Jewish Chronicle further reported that Aisha confided in her husband about changing her appearance to avoid further attention from Khan. She cut her hair short and pierced her ears multiple times, hoping to make herself, as she allegedly put it, “less appealing” to a man who told her he “loved long black hair.”

In one particularly harrowing detail reported by The Jewish Chronicle, Malik recounted how his wife described a recurring scene: “The work talk would last three minutes, and then he would start. It would always happen on a gold, crescent-shaped sofa in the apartment.”

Unable to escape the encounters without risking her position, Aisha allegedly “stood there like a statue,” enduring the ordeal in silence to preserve her career. Malik said his wife told him: “If she could bear [the alleged contact] for a couple of seconds, then she could get out of there.”

The experiences reportedly left her suicidal, and she began exhibiting signs of deep depression. “She was a strong woman when she went in,” Malik told The Jewish Chronicle, “but by the time she came out, she was broken.”

The allegations, as both The Times and The Jewish Chronicle report confirm, are now part of a broader United Nations investigation into claims of sexual misconduct involving two women, both of whom were directly under Khan’s authority during his tenure as ICC chief prosecutor.

Through his lawyers, Karim Khan, 55, has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, calling them “demonstrably untrue” and “an attack on his character and decades of public service.” He maintains that he has “never engaged in any coercive, abusive, or inappropriate behavior” and has emphasized that he “welcomes a full and transparent investigation” into the matter.

Nevertheless, as The Jewish Chronicle reported, the accusations have dealt a crippling blow to Khan’s career and to the credibility of the ICC, which is already under fire for what critics describe as political bias and selective prosecution.

Khan, who was suspended from his position in May, is one of the most high-profile figures ever to face such allegations within an international legal institution. His suspension came only weeks after he announced his intention to seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza—an announcement that drew widespread condemnation from Israel and Jewish organizations worldwide.

The timing of the revelations, as The Jewish Chronicle report observed, has added a deeply political dimension to the scandal. For months, critics had accused Khan of weaponizing the ICC to target democratic nations like Israel while turning a blind eye to the crimes of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and state actors like Iran.

Just weeks before his suspension, Khan was sued in the Jerusalem District Court by the families of three Israeli hostages—Eitan Mor, Omri Miran, and Avinatan Or—who accused him of “providing support and services to Hamas” and of “levelling false accusations” against the Jewish state.

As The Jewish Chronicle reported, the 20-million-shekel lawsuit alleges that Khan’s pursuit of Israeli officials while ignoring Hamas’s atrocities amounted to collaboration with terror. The plaintiffs further contend that Khan’s ICC office deliberately distorted the facts surrounding Israel’s military operations, presenting them as “war crimes” while omitting Hamas’s record of human shields, kidnappings, and civilian massacres.

“Karim Khan used his position to demonize Israel on the world stage,” one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys told The Jewish Chronicle. “He sought to criminalize the act of self-defense while protecting the perpetrators of terror.”

The Jewish Chronicle has been among the first to call attention to the broader implications of the scandal for the International Criminal Court, which now faces what one legal expert described as an “existential credibility crisis.”

“This is not just about Karim Khan,” one senior diplomat told The Jewish Chronicle. “It’s about an institution that preaches accountability yet is riddled with hypocrisy. The ICC cannot credibly investigate crimes against humanity while failing to police its own leadership.”

The newspaper noted that the ICC has struggled for years with accusations of corruption, inefficiency, and political bias, with many member states—especially Israel and the United States—questioning its jurisdiction and motives.

Under Khan’s leadership, the Court’s legitimacy had already been strained. His aggressive posture toward Israel, coupled with his inaction regarding mass atrocities in Syria, Iran, and China, had drawn rebuke from Western governments and Jewish advocacy groups alike.

Now, the allegations of sexual misconduct threaten to obliterate what remained of the Court’s moral authority.

In a scathing editorial, The Jewish Chronicle argued that the scandal exposes a deeper rot within the institutions of international justice: a pattern of silence, denial, and protectionism for elites at the top.

“For years, the ICC and its allied organizations have hidden behind the rhetoric of human rights to deflect scrutiny of their own abuses,” the paper wrote. “If these allegations prove true, then the Court’s leadership has been not only complicit in moral hypocrisy but directly responsible for perpetuating the same exploitation it claims to condemn.”

The editorial went on to question why the ICC’s internal oversight mechanisms failed to act sooner, noting that complaints about misconduct had allegedly been circulating within the Court’s corridors long before Khan’s suspension.

The impact of the case has reverberated beyond The Hague, shaking confidence in other international institutions that rely on the ICC’s prosecutorial credibility.

As The Jewish Chronicle reported, both the United Nations and the European Union have called for full transparency in the ongoing investigation, while several human rights organizations have distanced themselves from Khan.

Israel, meanwhile, has seized on the scandal as vindication of its long-held criticism of the ICC’s moral duplicity. “The same man who accused Israel of war crimes now stands accused of crimes against women,” one Israeli official told The Jewish Chronicle. “This is the true face of the so-called guardians of international justice.”

The UN’s independent inquiry into Khan’s conduct is ongoing, and legal experts anticipate that the findings—expected early next year—will have profound implications not only for Khan personally but also for the future of the ICC itself.

If the allegations are substantiated, Khan could face criminal prosecution under both UK and international law, as well as permanent disbarment from legal practice. But even if he is cleared, the damage to the ICC’s reputation may be irreparable.

As The Jewish Chronicle report observed: “For an institution built on the promise of accountability, the ICC now stands accused of betraying its own creed. Whether Karim Khan is guilty or not, his downfall has become a symbol of everything that has gone wrong in the world of international justice—a system where politics, power, and personal misconduct intertwine to destroy faith in truth itself.”

In the court of public opinion, that verdict may already be sealed.