Le Monde: 'Majority' of ICC bureau members support Karim Khan exoneration report
A majority of states among the 21 members of the executive bureau of the International Criminal Court's ruling body are in favour of upholding the findings of a judicial panel which cleared chief prosecutor Karim Khan of wrongdoing, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
Le Monde's report comes after Middle East Eye revealed that the three-judge panel had concluded that a United Nations investigation into accusations of alleged sexual misconduct had failed to establish any "misconduct or breach of duty" on Khan's part.
The report also appeared to corroborate MEE's reporting earlier this week that a minority of states on the bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the court's ruling body, are calling for the judges' report to be ignored, and for the ASP to draw its own conclusions from the investigation into Khan by the UN’s Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
“According to several diplomatic sources, a majority of states want to follow the judges’ conclusions, while others oppose this,” Le Monde said.
One source cited by Le Monde appeared to question whether Khan, who has strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing, had been treated fairly.
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“Since the beginning of this affair, everything seems designed to put the prosecutor under the guillotine,” the source was quoted as saying.
The allegations against Khan, who has been on leave since last May, have unfolded in parallel with his office's efforts to pursue a war crimes investigation against Israeli officials over the war in Gaza.
The ASP bureau, which is made up of representatives of 21 member states, has met twice in the past two weeks to discuss the judges' report and to weigh its next course of action. It has until 8 April to make a decision.
Following the publication of MEE’s report last Saturday, the Finnish president of the ASP, Paivi Kaukoranta, sent an internal email to ICC staff, saying that the case against Khan is ongoing and confidential.
“No decisions have been taken, and no weight should be given to recent media speculation,” she said in an internal memo later posted online as a press release.
“Currently, the Bureau is considering the OIOS report and the report of the ad hoc Panel pursuant to its responsibility as the competent decision maker and consistent with the legal framework of the Court,” she added.
MEE has contacted the ASP for comment, but had not receive a reply at the time of publication.
Experts have warned that ignoring the judges' report, which was commissioned by the ASP bureau, risks undermining the court's credibility and the rule of law.
"The members of the judicial panel have spoken unanimously, finding no misconduct and no breach of duty under the applicable legal framework, and this conclusion must be taken seriously by the members of the bureau," Sergey Vasiliev, an expert in international criminal law, told MEE earlier this week.
"Otherwise, there is a real risk of creating the appearance that the value of the report, in the eyes of some officials and states parties - who were behind this process at the outset - is diminished solely because the panel happened to reach a conclusion with which they disagree, and that they are therefore now prepared to give it little regard."
More than 5,000 pages of evidence
The OIOS investigation was commissioned by the presidency of the ASP in November 2024, following media reports that a member of Khan's office had accused him of sexual assault, and after the complainant had refused to cooperate with the ICC’s own investigative body.
The role of the panel has been to provide independent legal advice to the bureau, based on the facts presented in the OIOS report, on whether Khan committed serious misconduct, less serious misconduct, or no misconduct at all.
The OIOS report, along with more than 5,000 pages of underlying evidence, was submitted to the panel on 11 December. The judges were initially given 30 days to deliver their report. But they have been granted multiple extensions by the bureau due to the large volume of evidence.
Most recently, however, on 4 March, the bureau refused to extend the mandate when the panel said it needed more time to provide a more in-depth report.
In the report, seen by MEE, the panel was critical of the OIOS investigators, saying their report "either did not reach conclusive factual determinations or concluded that such determinations were impossible based on the evidence collected".
In a damning conclusion, the panel said the OIOS report failed to consider the reliability of information and whether it reached the standard of conclusive circumstantial evidence.
The panel said it "finds itself compelled to the conclusion that on the materials disclosed, there is insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct measured against the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt".
The allegations of misconduct against Khan have unfolded against the backdrop of the prosecutor’s efforts to pursue an investigation against Israeli officials over alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories.
Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in May 2024, and the court has faced a ferocious campaign by Israel and its allies, primarily the US, attempting to pressure him to drop the investigation.
Since February 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed financial and visa sanctions on Khan, his two deputy prosecutors, six judges, the UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine, and three Palestinian NGOs in connection with the Israel-Palestine investigation.
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