Zürcher Nachrichten - ICC's Khan: Forensic investigator now facing misconduct probe

EUR -
AED 3.845874
AFN 70.674066
ALL 97.848497
AMD 406.661363
ANG 1.881594
AOA 954.929054
ARS 1054.672401
AUD 1.622423
AWG 1.887346
AZN 1.780922
BAM 1.942206
BBD 2.107896
BDT 124.756771
BGN 1.954476
BHD 0.39467
BIF 3031.270778
BMD 1.047071
BND 1.405734
BOB 7.214639
BRL 6.094064
BSD 1.043963
BTN 88.001358
BWP 14.243575
BYN 3.41662
BYR 20522.593176
BZD 2.10449
CAD 1.474271
CDF 3006.140949
CHF 0.929946
CLF 0.037093
CLP 1023.501392
CNY 7.593411
CNH 7.601689
COP 4611.018329
CRC 533.450854
CUC 1.047071
CUP 27.747384
CVE 110.413563
CZK 25.282471
DJF 186.085088
DKK 7.459015
DOP 63.241086
DZD 140.285547
EGP 51.9608
ERN 15.706066
ETB 129.260624
FJD 2.387951
FKP 0.826471
GBP 0.835092
GEL 2.85865
GGP 0.826471
GHS 16.438375
GIP 0.826471
GMD 74.34189
GNF 9036.223128
GTQ 8.057448
GYD 218.417029
HKD 8.149511
HNL 26.412373
HRK 7.469029
HTG 137.020279
HUF 410.878547
IDR 16672.826935
ILS 3.815359
IMP 0.826471
INR 88.270601
IQD 1372.186651
IRR 44068.606931
ISK 145.133954
JEP 0.826471
JMD 164.856098
JOD 0.742688
JPY 160.610139
KES 135.595163
KGS 90.888485
KHR 4240.638096
KMF 491.02418
KPW 942.363575
KRW 1463.344866
KWD 0.322236
KYD 0.870027
KZT 521.281361
LAK 22998.916606
LBP 93765.214756
LKR 304.016247
LRD 188.289578
LSL 18.888537
LTL 3.091729
LVL 0.633363
LYD 5.125386
MAD 10.50579
MDL 19.079816
MGA 4899.245644
MKD 61.542117
MMK 3400.846025
MNT 3557.947475
MOP 8.368584
MRU 41.793859
MUR 49.547263
MVR 16.177003
MWK 1817.715192
MXN 21.806271
MYR 4.66732
MZN 66.896979
NAD 18.888878
NGN 1771.926971
NIO 38.490247
NOK 11.71439
NPR 140.801776
NZD 1.798952
OMR 0.40313
PAB 1.044003
PEN 3.956097
PGK 4.156765
PHP 61.72273
PKR 290.823758
PLN 4.309902
PYG 8147.130203
QAR 3.811971
RON 4.976835
RSD 117.006008
RUB 110.457098
RWF 1435.534451
SAR 3.933975
SBD 8.785545
SCR 14.239048
SDG 629.812192
SEK 11.527981
SGD 1.411719
SHP 0.826471
SLE 23.766152
SLL 21956.56198
SOS 598.400886
SRD 37.071596
STD 21672.257337
SVC 9.13506
SYP 2630.797353
SZL 18.889327
THB 36.375347
TJS 11.155425
TMT 3.675219
TND 3.316336
TOP 2.452339
TRY 36.279133
TTD 7.098383
TWD 34.02405
TZS 2769.502683
UAH 43.377879
UGX 3867.963333
USD 1.047071
UYU 44.488604
UZS 13433.921708
VES 48.773334
VND 26611.311509
VUV 124.310383
WST 2.922994
XAF 651.409933
XAG 0.034443
XAU 0.000399
XCD 2.829762
XDR 0.798595
XOF 657.034899
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.68926
ZAR 19.065697
ZMK 9424.903205
ZMW 28.788769
ZWL 337.156461
  • RBGPF

    0.8100

    61

    +1.33%

  • RYCEF

    0.0300

    6.8

    +0.44%

  • CMSC

    -0.1700

    24.56

    -0.69%

  • SCS

    -0.1850

    13.535

    -1.37%

  • RELX

    0.1650

    46.735

    +0.35%

  • GSK

    -0.2700

    33.88

    -0.8%

  • BCC

    -4.6500

    147.85

    -3.15%

  • RIO

    -1.1700

    61.81

    -1.89%

  • NGG

    -0.5500

    62.71

    -0.88%

  • CMSD

    -0.1630

    24.417

    -0.67%

  • JRI

    -0.0800

    13.29

    -0.6%

  • VOD

    -0.0600

    8.85

    -0.68%

  • BCE

    -0.4650

    26.555

    -1.75%

  • BTI

    0.2000

    37.53

    +0.53%

  • AZN

    -0.3300

    66.07

    -0.5%

  • BP

    -0.4500

    28.87

    -1.56%

ICC's Khan: Forensic investigator now facing misconduct probe
ICC's Khan: Forensic investigator now facing misconduct probe / Photo: Dimitar DILKOFF - AFP

ICC's Khan: Forensic investigator now facing misconduct probe

Karim Khan's job as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requires a scrupulous and meticulous examination of evidence to bring cases against alleged perpetrators of the world's worst crimes.

Text size:

Now the 54-year-British lawyer faces his own probe, into allegations of misconduct reportedly against a member of his own office, that he firmly denies.

When Khan was sworn in as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, he said the court should be judged by its acts -- "the proof of the pudding should be in the eating."

And by seeking arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Hamas figures, Khan has shown he is not afraid to take on the world's most controversial cases.

The application followed an arrest warrant issued last year for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which promptly slapped arrest warrants on Khan himself.

But Khan has faced down controversy throughout a career that has included stints defending Liberia's former president Charles Taylor against allegations of war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Other high-profile clients have included Kenya's President William Ruto in a crimes-against-humanity case at the ICC that was eventually dropped, and the son of late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam.

Asked about "crossing the floor" -- working as both prosecutor and defence -- Khan told specialist publication OpinioJuris that it helps lawyers stay "grounded."

It also prevents "corrosive traits such as thinking that defence counsel is the devil incarnate or that as a prosecutor you are doing 'God's work'," he said.

Criticised initially for not acting fast enough to prevent atrocities in Gaza, Khan touched off a firestorm when applying for arrest warrants over the war.

Netanyahu called it a "moral outrage of historic proportions." For US President Joe Biden, it was "outrageous."

Even before Khan's application, senior US Republicans penned a letter threatening to bar him and his family from the United States, ending ominously "you have been warned."

But Khan told CNN: "This is not a witch hunt. This is not some kind of emotional reaction to noise... It's a forensic process that is expected of us as international prosecutors."

- 'Guilty as charged' -

Born in Scotland, Khan was educated at the private Silcoates School in northern England, before studying undergraduate law at King's College, London.

His father was Pakistani, his mother British and he is a member of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, sometimes sprinkling his speeches with "inshallah" (God Willing).

Called to the bar in 1992, he went on to cut his teeth in international law at the former Yugoslav and Rwandan war crimes courts from 1997 to 2000.

He later represented survivors and relatives of victims of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia at its UN-backed court in the late 2000s.

His other roles have included a stint at The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to bring to justice the killers of Lebanese ex-PM Rafic Hariri in 2005.

More recently, he headed the UN special probe into Islamic State group crimes and called for trials like those at Nuremberg of Nazi leaders.

Initially absent from a list of candidates for the top ICC prosecutor job, Khan was added reportedly at the insistence of the Kenyan government.

The ICC selection panel described him as a "charismatic and articulate communicator who is well aware of his achievements."

"I did apply because I thought I could do the role. If the Search Committee thought this was arrogance, then I'm guilty as charged," Khan said.

In his speeches, he is forthright with a strong command of oratory, sprinkled with dashes of British humour.

"From what I've observed, Karim Khan seems like a no-nonsense lawyer, which I quite respect," Melanie O'Brien, visiting professor in international law at the University of Minnesota, told AFP.

An ICC prosecutor "has to have a certain fortitude because you know that you are going to be up against people who don't agree with you and don't agree with the court generally," she added.

Ch.Siegenthaler--NZN