In 2021, the International Criminal Court elected a new chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. He boasted to colleagues that, in his first three years on the job, he had obtained more than 40 new warrants, some not yet public. Among them were orders for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and top Russian military leaders, for war crimes in Ukraine; the leaders of Hamas, for its murderous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023; and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for the willful killing of civilians in Gaza, and for employing the denial of food as a weapon of war. Khan sought to reënergize the I.C.C. by upholding its promise of equal justice for all. Instead, he has become enmeshed in a scandal that threatens to severely weaken it.
Shortly before Khan applied for the Israeli warrants, two others working at the I.C.C. told the court’s human-resources department that a woman had privately complained about Khan, saying that he had subjected her to multiple unwanted sexual advances. Members of an internal-oversight bureau had met with the woman; she declined to participate in an investigation or to answer questions, and informed Khan of those decisions. The I.C.C. halted its inquiry, and she kept working for Khan. The woman, in a text to Khan about her refusal to coöperate with the internal inquiry, sounded worried that political machinations might be driving the investigation, telling him that she refused to be “a pawn in some game I don’t want to play.”
Then, months later, someone began a campaign to bring new attention to the secondhand reports about Khan; an anonymous e-mail account leaked one of the reports to journalists, and many attempted to contact the woman and the I.C.C. Khan and his lawyers have contended that Netanyahu and his allies are exploiting a vulnerable woman in order to discredit the case against the Israeli leaders. Netanyahu, in turn, has repeatedly claimed that Khan sought the warrants only to divert attention from the woman’s charges. David D. Kirkpatrick reports on the scandal at the Hague and how it became tangled with the international power struggle over the Israeli arrest warrants. Read more: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/the-hague-on-trial](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/the-hague-on-trial)
Sexual misconduct allegations, and potential Israeli involvment aside:
> Khan has told investigators that he decided to seek the warrants in May, 2024, because of frustration with what he considered to be delaying tactics by Israel, which included dragging out talks about letting him visit Gaza to carry out investigations on the ground. His requested visit had been blocked or postponed for months, and around May 15th Israel failed to provide necessary documents for a visit to Gaza that Khan had planned for the end of that month. He had come to believe that the Israelis would never permit such a trip.
Huh? By his own words, he hadn’t enough evidence that genocide/famine was happening. And he still issued the arrest warrants.
How unprofessional.
This isn’t enough to distract from the genocide that Israel is conducting.
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In 2021, the International Criminal Court elected a new chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. He boasted to colleagues that, in his first three years on the job, he had obtained more than 40 new warrants, some not yet public. Among them were orders for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and top Russian military leaders, for war crimes in Ukraine; the leaders of Hamas, for its murderous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023; and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a former Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for the willful killing of civilians in Gaza, and for employing the denial of food as a weapon of war. Khan sought to reënergize the I.C.C. by upholding its promise of equal justice for all. Instead, he has become enmeshed in a scandal that threatens to severely weaken it.
Shortly before Khan applied for the Israeli warrants, two others working at the I.C.C. told the court’s human-resources department that a woman had privately complained about Khan, saying that he had subjected her to multiple unwanted sexual advances. Members of an internal-oversight bureau had met with the woman; she declined to participate in an investigation or to answer questions, and informed Khan of those decisions. The I.C.C. halted its inquiry, and she kept working for Khan. The woman, in a text to Khan about her refusal to coöperate with the internal inquiry, sounded worried that political machinations might be driving the investigation, telling him that she refused to be “a pawn in some game I don’t want to play.”
Then, months later, someone began a campaign to bring new attention to the secondhand reports about Khan; an anonymous e-mail account leaked one of the reports to journalists, and many attempted to contact the woman and the I.C.C. Khan and his lawyers have contended that Netanyahu and his allies are exploiting a vulnerable woman in order to discredit the case against the Israeli leaders. Netanyahu, in turn, has repeatedly claimed that Khan sought the warrants only to divert attention from the woman’s charges. David D. Kirkpatrick reports on the scandal at the Hague and how it became tangled with the international power struggle over the Israeli arrest warrants. Read more: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/the-hague-on-trial](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/the-hague-on-trial)
Sexual misconduct allegations, and potential Israeli involvment aside:
> Khan has told investigators that he decided to seek the warrants in May, 2024, because of frustration with what he considered to be delaying tactics by Israel, which included dragging out talks about letting him visit Gaza to carry out investigations on the ground. His requested visit had been blocked or postponed for months, and around May 15th Israel failed to provide necessary documents for a visit to Gaza that Khan had planned for the end of that month. He had come to believe that the Israelis would never permit such a trip.
Huh? By his own words, he hadn’t enough evidence that genocide/famine was happening. And he still issued the arrest warrants.
How unprofessional.
This isn’t enough to distract from the genocide that Israel is conducting.
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