UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the UK Foreign Secretary and the UK Foreign Office’s Legal Adviser urging the UK Government to support the removal of International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan KC at the forthcoming special session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the ICC on 24 July 2026.
The letter has now been sent to the incoming Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband MP, and was sent earlier to his predecessor, Yvette Cooper MP.
In its letter, UKLFI calls on the UK not only to vote in favour of Mr Khan’s removal, but also to announce its position publicly in advance and encourage other ICC States Parties to do the same. UKLFI argues that, as Mr Khan’s home country and one of the States that supported his election, the UK has a particular responsibility to help restore confidence in the ICC and the international rule of law.
The letter notes that the ASP will decide whether Mr Khan should be removed under Article 46 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, following reported findings of the ASP Bureau that he committed serious sexual misconduct towards a junior member of staff.
UKLFI argues additionally that Mr Khan committed further serious breaches of his obligations to investigate incriminating and exonerating circumstances equally in accordance with Article 54 of the Rome Statute and to engage with national criminal jurisdictions in accordance with the principle of complementarity in its Preamble and Article 1.
The letter notes that Mr Khan suddenly cancelled a planned visit to Israel in May 2024 and instead applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant.
By abandoning the planned visit, Mr Khan avoided considering and presenting to the Court in his application for these arrest warrants important additional information that would have been provided by Israeli authorities.
That information would have showed that the central charge made by Mr Khan – use of starvation as a method of warfare – was based on fundamentally flawed reports.
UKLFI adds that every phrase of every sentence of Mr Khan’s public summary of his grounds for seeking the warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant was false. UKLFI considers that “if Mr Khan had properly engaged with the Israeli authorities he could not have proceeded on such an embarrassingly and comprehensively false basis.”
UKLFI’s letter cites reported statements by Mr Khan urging the victim of the alleged sexual misconduct to withdraw her allegations so as not to jeopardise the applications for the arrest warrants. The victim also reportedly said that she had refrained from pressing her allegations because this might have disrupted the issue of the arrest warrants.
According to UKLFI, Mr Khan’s conduct and these reported statements raise an inference that he proceeded with the applications for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in breach of his obligations of impartiality and complementarity in an attempt to persuade the victim of his alleged sexual misconduct to withdraw her allegations.
If this inference is correct, it makes the sexual misconduct and attempts to suppress its investigation all the more serious. And even if the inference is not correct, Mr Khan’s conduct, including his failure to stand aside, constituted a serious breach of duty by raising a reasonable suspicion that is very damaging to the Court’s reputation.
Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UKLFI, said:
“The integrity and impartiality of the ICC’s Prosecutor are critical to its legitimacy. Where there has been serious misconduct and serious breaches of professional duty, full accountability is essential if confidence in the Court is to begin to be restored.
“It will also be necessary to cancel all actions that may have been tainted by the misconduct, including the extant arrest warrants.
“As Karim Khan’s home country, and one that actively supported his appointment, the United Kingdom should take a leading role by voting for his removal and encouraging other States Parties to do the same.”