Diplomats say Karim Khan committed serious sexual misconduct involving a junior staffer; he denies wrongdoing, and ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant remain in forceDiplomats running the International Criminal Court's oversight body have decided that prosecutor Karim Khan had an inappropriate ​sexual relationship with a junior staff member and should be fired, two copies of its decision showed.It is the ‌first time details of the decision on accusations of misconduct brought by a female lawyer in 2024 against Khan, a 56-year-old British lawyer, have been reported, including the recommendation that he be dismissed. Earlier this month, Khan was suspended from his role as chief prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague.GallerySuspended ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan says Israel is behind the allegations due to warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photos: AFP, Marc Israel Sellem)The decision by the executive bureau of the ICC's governing body will inform a vote on his fate by the ICC's 125-member Assembly of ​States Parties in New York on July 24. It is unclear which way the vote will go.Khan has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. "The ​decision is unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence," his lawyers said in comments sent to Reuters on ⁠Tuesday. They cited a review by judges that found the evidence was insufficient to prove the allegations "beyond a reasonable doubt."Months later, two complaints emerged from former staff members alleging inappropriate sexual conduct. Khan and his associates have at times suggested that Israel may be behind the allegations. However, even critics of the Israeli government, including the British newspaper The Guardian, have reported that the complaints appear credible and that there is no indication Israel had any involvement.The bureau set aside the advisory opinion by the three external judges and concluded that it did have enough evidence to make a ​decision, citing the report of a specialized yearlong U.N. investigation commissioned by the court.The 125 countires that make up the court will vote on Karim Khan's dismissal(Photo: Piroschka Van De Wouw, Reuters)"The evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that the prosecutor (...) engaged in a sexual relationship with (the victim)," a copy of the June 8 decision reviewed by Reuters said. The relationship started in March 2023 and "escalated over time and that, in the context ​of that power imbalance, a sexual relationship could never be appropriate."The 27-page document, shown to Reuters by two independent sources, said Khan committed a ​serious breach of duty and serious misconduct."His behavior escalated over time resulting in him engaging in non-consensual sexual contact with her in his office, at his ‌private residence ⁠and while on mission," the document quoted the UN report as having found.The bureau recommended "removal from office of the elected official, prosecutor Karim Khan," the document said.At least 63 of the 125 member states of the world's criminal court of last resort are required to pass his dismissal.According to the complaint that triggered proceedings against Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was in New York in early December 2023 for a court meeting at United Nations headquarters. ICC officials said Khan had lashed out at his team amid criticism he faced following the outbreak of the war on October 7. One of Khan’s assistants, a Malaysian lawyer in her 30s who had accompanied him on multiple work trips, asked to meet him in an effort to calm him down. He allegedly told her to come that evening to his suite at the Millennium Hilton hotel in New York, near the UN.The Malaysian lawyer testified to UN officials that when she arrived, he began touching her in a sexual manner, a pattern she said continued for months. The woman, who is married and a mother, said she tried several times to leave the room but he held her hand and eventually led her to the bed. There, she said, he removed her pants and forced her into sexual intercourse. In testimony obtained by the Wall Street Journal, she said Khan did not use a condom during the alleged assault.The International Criminal Court in The Hague(Photo: Getty Images)Khan previously worked with the International Criminal Court for six years before joining his current team in 2023. According to her account, the harassment began even earlier, in March 2023, during a work trip to London, when he allegedly tried to hold her hand. In addition to the New York incident, she said Khan sexually assaulted or harassed her in Colombia, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Paris and The Hague.The complainant said that in April 2024, while they were in Caracas, Venezuela, Khan knocked on her hotel room door at 3 a.m., but she pretended to be asleep. A day later, when they were in Bogotá, Colombia, she avoided him by saying she felt unwell, but Khan nevertheless came to her room, lay down next to her on the bed and, according to her detailed testimony to UN investigators, sexually assaulted her again. “I did not move a single centimeter,” she said.A former defense attorney who took up the top job at the court five years ago, Khan has been suspended by ​the ICC and by Britain's independent regulator ​for court lawyers, which will ⁠consider his future in coming weeks.A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment. The bureau, a core group of 21 member states tasked with reviewing the case, did not respond to a request for comment.The allegations ​against Khan and the findings of the court body have deepened the prolonged crisis at the war crimes ​court, which is also ⁠under U.S. sanctions over investigations into the United States and Israel.The U.S. has imposed sanctions on 11 ICC judges and prosecutors, including Khan, citing ⁠the ICC's ​arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, ​and for a past probe into U.S. troops in Afghanistan.The warrants will remain even if Khan were to be dismissed because they were confirmed by ICC judges. Khan's deputies have ​run the prosecutor's office since he went on voluntary leave last May.