Exclusive: ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to address Oxford Union next week
The British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, is set to address the Oxford Union next week, Middle East Eye can reveal.
The event will mark Khan's first public address since he went on extended leave last May pending the outcome of a United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, all of which he has denied.
Last month, MEE reported that a panel of judges appointed by the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the ICC’s governing body, to review the UN investigation had concluded it had not established any "misconduct or breach of duty" by Khan.
But the chief prosecutor has still not returned to his duties. MEE later reported that a group of disproportionately western and European states voted at a bureau meeting to disregard the panel of judges and make their own assessment, based on the UN report.
Khan's legal team has called on the ASP bureau to accept the judges' findings and has expressed concern that "political considerations" rather than legal process are shaping its deliberations.
"That Panel, comprising three highly distinguished international judges and appointed by the Bureau itself, reviewed the entirety of the evidential record over a period of three months and reached a unanimous and unequivocal conclusion: that the material does not establish any misconduct or breach of duty of any kind," Khan's lawyers said in a statement earlier this month.
The bureau is expected to make a final judgment on the alleged misconduct in early June.
The Oxford Union is a private club which describes itself as the most prestigious debating society in the world.
It draws its membership from students, but it is not part of the University of Oxford.
Khan is set to speak at 7.30pm next Tuesday, 5 May, at an event open to the union's members and paying members of the public, MEE understands.
Arwa Hanin Elrayess, the president of the Oxford Union, told MEE: "We are deeply honoured to host Mr Khan KC at the Oxford Union.
"At a time when regimes persecute and sanction those who exercise their right to free speech, institutions like ours have a duty to stand firm and ensure those voices are heard," she said.
"Mr Khan's commitment to international law in the face of sustained political pressure is a story that speaks directly to the state of international justice today, and ought to be heard."
Elrayess is a Palestinian-Algerian student originally from Gaza. She made history last December when she became the first Palestinian, first Arab woman and first Algerian to be elected president of the society.
Presidents of the Oxford Union serve for one university term, with Elrayess in office until the end of the academic year in July.
Intimidation campaign
The investigation into Khan has unfolded against the backdrop of an intensifying intimidation campaign targeting the prosecutor and the ICC itself over his office's ongoing efforts to bring Gaza war crimes prosecutions against Israeli leaders.
Khan, his two deputies and a number of judges have been subjected to US sanctions.
MEE reported last August that pressure on the prosecutor involved threats and warnings directed at Khan by prominent politicians; close colleagues and family friends briefing against him; fears for his safety, prompted by a Mossad team's presence in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual misconduct allegations.
Pressure on Khan started to build in April 2024, as he prepared to apply for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes.
This included a threat from then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in 2024 that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued warrants for Israeli leaders.
Pressure on Khan built again in October 2024, a month before the ICC judges issued the warrants.
It intensified further in early 2025 as Khan was reported to be seeking warrants for more Israeli ministers, and coincided with further media leaks about the sexual misconduct allegations. The Trump administration sanctioned Khan in February that year.
Khan then went on leave in mid-May, shortly after an attempt to suspend him – prompted by a senior member of his own office – failed, and amid the UN investigation into the allegations of misconduct.
UN investigation into Khan
The report by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) presented evidence and counter-evidence from complainants and Khan.
But according to the subsequent judges' panel report, it “either did not reach conclusive factual determinations or concluded that such determinations were impossible based on the evidence collected”.
The judges said the report relied on hearsay evidence in the absence of direct evidence of misconduct.
They concluded that “there is insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct measured against the standard of proof of beyond reasonable doubt".
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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