UN watchdog to conduct probe into sexual misconduct claims against ICC prosecutor

A United Nations watchdog has been selected to lead an external probe into allegations of sexual misconduct against the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, The Associated Press has learned.

The move will likely generate conflict of interest concerns owing to the prosecutor’s wife’s past work for the oversight body.

Chief prosecutor Karim Khan provided updates on the court’s politically sensitive investigations into alleged war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, Gaza and Venezuela among other conflict areas during the institution’s annual meeting this week in The Hague, Netherlands.

But hanging over the gathering of the ICC’s 124 member states are allegations against Khan himself.

An AP investigation in October found that at the same time the ICC was readying a warrant for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Khan was facing internal accusations that he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will over a period of several months.

At this week’s meeting, Päivi Kaukoranta, a Finnish diplomat currently heading the ICC’s oversight body, told delegates that she has settled on the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, two diplomats tell AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.