Second woman accuses ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan of sexual misconduct | International criminal court

A second lady has come ahead to an inquiry investigating sexual abuse allegations towards Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the worldwide prison courtroom (ICC), the Guardian has realized.The girl has alleged that whereas working for the outstanding British lawyer earlier in his profession, he behaved inappropriately, subjecting her to undesirable sexual advances, abused his authority over her, and repeatedly sought to stress her into sexual exercise.Khan, who denies sexual misconduct “of any type”, has quickly stepped apart as head of the ICC’s prosecution division as he awaits the end result of the inquiry into separate abuse allegations introduced by a member of his employees on the courtroom.Launched final 12 months, the inquiry by a UN watchdog obtained the brand new allegations from the second lady this summer season. Its investigators are understood to have performed a number of interviews so as to look at her claims, which date again to 2009.On the time, the girl was in her 20s and dealing as an unpaid intern for Khan. He was a number one defence lawyer on the ICC and different warfare crimes tribunals in The Hague, having notably represented the previous Liberian president Charles Taylor.Talking completely to the Guardian, the girl stated Khan abused his energy and affect over her and described his behaviour as a “fixed onslaught” of advances. “He shouldn’t have been doing it,” she stated. “He was my employer.”The girl spoke on situation of anonymity as she fears reprisals and antagonistic penalties for her and her household if publicly recognized. She got here ahead after studying concerning the more moderen allegations made towards Khan by the ICC staffer.The second lady’s account of Khan’s alleged mistreatment of her comprises a number of similarities to the staffer’s allegations, particulars of which have been shared by individuals accustomed to her claims. Each ladies have alleged that Khan would ask them to return to work at his residence. There, they every allege, he would sit beside them on a sofa, contact them, kiss them and attempt to persuade them to lie down with him.Legal professionals for Khan didn’t handle particular particulars of both lady’s allegations however stated: “It’s wholly unfaithful that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any type.”They stated Khan “categorically denies” having “harassed or mistreated any particular person, or having misused his place or authority, or engaged in any conduct that may very well be interpreted as coercive, exploitative, or professionally inappropriate”.They claimed Khan had offered detailed proof to the inquiry that “sits squarely at odds with the allegations which have been put to him” and “in quite a few materials respects present these allegations to be demonstrably unfaithful”.Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, who’ve had arrest warrants issued towards them by Khan’s ICC. {Photograph}: ReutersKhan, 55, was elected in 2021 to serve a nine-year time period as chief prosecutor. He’s in impact the general public face of the ICC, a everlasting courtroom of final resort that investigates and prosecutes people accused of atrocities.Since taking workplace, Khan has raised the courtroom’s profile and thrust it into the crosshairs of main powers, with arrest warrants issued for suspects together with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.His tenure was thrown into turmoil final 12 months when the allegations made by the ICC staffer turned public. The girl, a lawyer in her 30s who labored straight for him, alleges the misconduct occurred over an prolonged interval between 2023 and 2024.Khan and his representatives have sought to forged the emergence of the allegations as a part of a marketing campaign by hostile exterior actors to discredit and put stress on him in response to actions he has taken towards Netanyahu and the previous Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant.Whereas the Guardian understands there have been makes an attempt by pro-Israeli actors to transient journalists and leak details about the ICC staffer’s criticism, it has discovered no proof to counsel both lady has raised the allegations as a part of an elaborate plot towards the prosecutor.As soon as the UN watchdog’s investigation is accomplished, its findings will probably be reviewed by a panel of judicial consultants who will advise the ICC’s governing physique if any motion must be taken towards Khan.If he’s discovered to have dedicated “critical misconduct” or a critical breach of his duties, the prosecutor might face an unprecedented reckoning: a secret poll by which the ICC’s 125 member states would vote on whether or not to take away him from workplace.‘Confused and humiliated’Because the sexual abuse allegations shook the ICC final 12 months, Khan issued an announcement insisting that in 30 years of working in “various contexts” there had “by no means been any such criticism lodged towards me by anybody”.Patricia (not her actual identify) stated that when she learn concerning the allegations and noticed Khan’s assertion, her “coronary heart sank”. She stated that beforehand, as an intern at the beginning of her profession, she had felt unable to make a proper criticism.Patricia stated that earlier than going to work for Khan she had seen the internship as an “thrilling and significant” alternative. “Karim was a well-connected, well-respected one that might make issues occur, and somebody who would put a superb phrase in for you,” she stated.Fast GuideContact Harry Davies about this storyShowIf you’ve gotten one thing to share about this story, you possibly can contact Harry utilizing one of many following strategies.Safe Messaging within the Guardian appThe Guardian app has a instrument to ship recommendations on tales. Messages are finish to finish encrypted and hid inside the routine exercise that each Guardian cell app performs. 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Choose ‘Safe Messaging’.To ship a message to Harry, please select the ‘UK Investigations’ staff.Sign MessengerYou can message Harry utilizing the Sign Messenger app. Use the ‘discover by username’ possibility and sort hfd.32Email (not safe)In the event you don’t want a excessive degree of safety or confidentiality you possibly can electronic mail harry.davies@theguardian.comSecureDrop and different safe methodsIf you possibly can safely use the tor community with out being noticed or monitored you possibly can ship messages and paperwork to the Guardian by way of our SecureDrop platform.Lastly, our information at theguardian.com/ideas lists a number of methods to contact us securely, and discusses the professionals and cons of every. Illustration: Guardian Design / Wealthy CousinsThank you on your suggestions.Nevertheless, she stated working for Khan “got here at a value it shouldn’t have come at, and the value it got here at did disturb and misery me for a while afterwards”.In line with Patricia, an early expertise of Khan’s alleged misconduct occurred on the courtroom’s places of work the place she claimed Khan “groped” her breasts with a “extended” caress that was “utterly unconsented”.“It wasn’t like ‘oops, I brushed the again of my hand towards you, I’m sorry’,” she stated. “He was too shut.”Patricia stated the incident within the workplace left her “confused and humiliated”, however over the next weeks she was required to work carefully with Khan on making ready a part of a case. Throughout this era, she stated, Khan requested her on at the very least six events to work at his residence in The Hague, the place they’d be alone collectively.The worldwide prison courtroom in The Hague. {Photograph}: Wolfgang Rattay/ReutersShe stated that when working at his condo she needed to negotiate his advances whereas attempting to get work achieved. “I used to be attempting to determine how you can keep in his good graces and get the work expertise whereas not sleeping with him and succumbing,” she stated.This was tough, she stated, “as a result of after we had been in his home it was identical to a relentless onslaught”. She claimed that every time she labored on the condo “it could be one other spherical of [Khan] sitting subsequent to me on the sofa and touching me and kissing me and attempting to persuade me to sleep with him”.Patricia stated she “felt trapped” on the time. She was protecting the prices of the internship and felt it was very important she obtained a optimistic letter of advice from Khan. Complaining was not an possibility, she stated, and the selection she confronted was to “both persevere or go away”.“It felt vital to me to get by way of the expertise,” she stated. “I keep in mind strolling to his home and feeling like I needed to amp myself up, feeling like I needed to fortify myself.”She stated she refused Khan’s specific requests to have intercourse. “I keep in mind arising with every kind of dumb excuses for why I didn’t wish to sleep with him, simply to try to not make him offended.”She stated though she was “depressing” and depressed whereas working for Khan, she determined to remain. After the internship had completed, she obtained a glowing advice letter from Khan. She stated it “felt like a cope with the satan”.Patricia stated she remained in contact with Khan for a number of years as she felt knowledgeable must carry on good phrases with him. Over time, she stated, she got here to understand how Khan’s behaviour had affected her.She stated Khan would ship her messages sometimes lengthy after the internship, although she finally stopped responding. In 2019, she obtained what she described as a “bizarre message” out of the blue. Khan stated he was fascinated with her. He thanked her for her “good firm” and for “being an excellent buddy to me”.She replied: “Karim, it doesn’t make me blissful to listen to from you, that’s the reason I don’t reply. I want you wouldn’t contact me, please don’t do it any extra.” She didn’t hear from Khan once more.ICC staffer: ‘Ceaseless’ advancesAfter studying concerning the ICC staffer’s allegations towards Khan final 12 months, Patricia contacted the Guardian. She stated she was “disturbed” that one thing much like her expertise was alleged to have occurred once more so a few years later.This summer season she offered formal testimony to the UN’s Workplace of Inside Oversight Companies (OIOS), the physique investigating the ICC staffer’s allegations. A supply accustomed to the inquiry stated the watchdog had reviewed materials shared by Patricia and interviewed individuals near her. A spokesperson for the OIOS stated it didn’t touch upon its investigation actions.For the previous 9 months, investigators have been inspecting the ICC staffer’s allegations. Because the Guardian reported final 12 months, her claims embrace allegations of coercive sexual behaviour and abuse of authority. The alleged sexual misconduct is claimed to have occurred in lodge rooms throughout work journeys, in Khan’s workplace on the ICC and at his residence.Khan talking to media in The Hague in January. {Photograph}: Piroschka Van De Wouw/ReutersSince then, new particulars have emerged concerning the staffer’s allegations. A number of ICC sources and different people with data of the claims stated there have been a number of cases of alleged sexual abuse stated to have occurred at Khan’s residence after she was requested to go there for work causes.In line with two sources, the staffer has alleged Khan would usually carry her over to a sofa in the lounge the place he would contact her and try to influence her to have interaction in sexual exercise. She is claimed to have tried to keep away from his advances and tried to make excuses to depart.The staffer has described Khan’s advances at his residence as “ceaseless”. In a single report of the allegations, she stated: “He would attempt to kiss me and I might all the time transfer my head away and transfer again and he would inform me to cease transferring and say ‘kiss me, kiss me’.”Khan’s positionThe regulation agency representing Khan, Carter-Ruck, stated he had an unblemished report and denied the allegations. They stated he was “cooperating absolutely and transparently” with the continued inquiry however that he had “grave issues as as to whether the investigation can ship due course of”.They claimed Khan “has been the topic of an orchestrated marketing campaign” and stated he was conscious of makes an attempt to “discredit him and destroy his private repute by way of the media, as a direct consequence of his position in issuing the arrest warrants” for Netanyahu and Gallant.Final 12 months the Guardian, with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Journal and the Hebrew-language outlet Native Name, revealed how Israel’s intelligence businesses had run a marketing campaign towards the ICC. This included a Mossad operation that tried to intimidate and smear Khan’s predecessor Fatou Bensouda.Towards this backdrop, Khan and folks appearing on his behalf have sought to counsel in non-public and to journalists that he’s the topic of an identical effort by Israeli intelligence.In latest weeks, retailers corresponding to Center East Eye (MEE) and Le Monde have printed reviews about pressures purportedly positioned on Khan. An MEE article claimed the ICC’s investigation into Israeli warfare crimes had been “derailed by threats, leaks and intercourse claims”, and raised questions concerning the reliability of the staffer’s allegations.5 ICC sources accustomed to Khan’s response to the claims when the allegations first surfaced instructed the Guardian that his staff concluded it was extremely unlikely the abuse claims had been a part of an intelligence operation. One of many sources stated pro-Israeli pursuits “could have exploited the story however they didn’t create the story”.The ICC staffer on the coronary heart of the inquiry has been notably distressed by strategies she is a part of a pro-Israeli plot, in line with individuals who know her. They famous that she is Muslim, and was recognized inside the prosecutor’s workplace to have been supportive of its investigation into senior Israeli officers’ crimes in Gaza.