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Israel has petitioned judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to cancel the arrest warrants issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing explosive allegations of sexual misconduct against ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
Documents published on the ICC’s official website show that Israel asked the court to order the suspension of the ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The request, dated May 9, was signed by Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam.
Israeli officials believe Khan advanced the arrest warrant process to divert attention from a serious sexual assault complaint filed against him.
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From right, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, US President Donald Truimp
(Photos: Dana Kopel, Shahar Yurman, AFP)
“There’s a sense here that he was caught,” one Israeli official said. “This is dynamite that could impact the entire case.”
Sources familiar with the details alleged that Khan used an advisory opinion from a so-called secular legal forum—an entity that does not formally exist within the ICC—to pressure the court’s judges into approving the warrants.
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According to a detailed report in The Wall Street Journal, a Malaysian lawyer in her 30s who worked closely with Khan and traveled with him on official trips, alleged that he assaulted her repeatedly over several months. She claimed the first assault took place at the Millennium Hilton hotel in New York, near the UN headquarters, after he invited her to his suite under the pretext of calming tensions following an outburst at work. She said Khan sexually assaulted her that night, and the pattern continued during subsequent trips to Colombia, Kinshasa, Chad, Paris and The Hague.
The lawyer had worked at the ICC for six years before joining Khan’s team in 2023. She said the harassment began in March 2023 during a business trip to London, when Khan allegedly tried to hold her hand.
On April 29, 2024, she confided in Thomas Lynch, a close American adviser to Khan, and another individual, telling them through tears that she had suffered months of abuse and could no longer endure it. A few days later, Lynch and two aides confronted Khan, informing him they planned to report the allegations to the ICC’s human resources office. According to people briefed on the conversation, Khan initially responded, “I’ll have to resign,” but quickly added, “But then people will think I’m running away from Palestine.”
On May 5, the ICC’s internal investigations unit contacted the complainant, but she declined to cooperate, refusing to confirm or deny the allegations. Reports suggest she did not want to jeopardize the arrest warrants. Based on her messages and testimony to UN investigators, Khan later approached her in the office and, in tears, asked: “Tell me if I need to resign. Think about the Palestinian arrest warrants.”