Karim Ahmad Khan

Karim Asad Ahmad Khan (born 30 March 1970) is a British lawyer specialising in international criminal law and international human rights law, who has served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since 2021.

After his appointment by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, he served as a United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and acted as Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations Investigative Team to promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL in Iraq (UNITAD), which was established in accordance with Security Council resolution 2379 (2017) to support national efforts to hold ISIL (Daesh) accountable for acts that may amount to war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in Iraq.

In February 2021, Khan was elected the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In May 2024, he announced his intention to apply for an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other members of his cabinet, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as part of the ICC investigation in Palestine.

Education and early career
Karim Ahmad Khan was born in Edinburgh on 30 March 1970. He was educated at Silcoates School in West Yorkshire and earned an LLB degree and AKC from King's College London. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Lincoln's Inn in 1992. He later attended Wolfson College at Oxford University, studying toward a DPhil in law, although he did not complete the course and does not hold a doctorate. Between 1993 and 1996 Khan was a Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, and was appointed a Senior Crown Prosecutor in 1995.

International law career
Between 1997 and 1998, Khan worked as a Legal Officer at the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He later served as Legal Adviser at the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) until 2000.

Between 2006 and 2007, Khan was lead defence counsel to former President of Liberia Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

Khan spent several years engaged in leading cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). In 2008, he was appointed Lead Counsel to former Le Monde journalist Florence Hartmann, who had served as chief spokesperson to ICTY and ICTR prosecutor Carla del Ponte, when she was charged with contempt of court. Between 2008 and 2010, he was engaged as Lead Counsel before the ICC representing Sudanese rebel leader Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, the first ICC suspect to voluntarily surrender to the jurisdiction of the Court. In January 2011, he was instructed as Lead Counsel to represent Francis Muthaura before the ICC in relation to the post-election violence in 2007–2008. He later served as Lead Counsel for Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto before the ICC, and Lead Counsel for Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Fatmir Limaj before the EULEX Court in Kosovo from 2014 until 2017. He also served as the Lead Counsel for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Baghdadi Mahmudi at the ICC.

Khan represented a group of Anglophone human rights lawyers charged with terrorism and other offences before the Military Court in Yaoundé, Cameroon, as international counsel from February 2017 until September 2017. He led the team that advised Cham and Albanian communities in relation to their expulsion from Greece, and subsequent expropriation of property after the Second World War. He was lead counsel for a large victims case in Sierra Leone arising out of the ECOMOG intervention in 1999–2002.

Also in 2017, he represented more than 100,000 victim claimants from the Kipsigi and Talai communities in Kenya seeking redress for alleged human rights violations committed during British colonial rule. Khan said that "Certain historical injustices need to be recognized... It's something that I feel very passionately about and it's really worthwhile."

Until June 2021, Khan was based in Baghdad, Iraq, and served as Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations Investigative Team for the Promotion of Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL in Iraq (UNITAD), established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2379 (2017). Khan led the team in achieving its mandate in the collection, storage, and preservation of evidence related to crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL; the promotion throughout the world of accountability for the crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL; to work with survivors in recognition of their interest in the achievement of accountability for crimes to which they have been subjected; to respect the sovereignty of the Government of Iraq in performing this investigation.

Khan met with government, religious, and community leadership across Iraq as part of his mandate at UNITAD.

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court


On 12 February 2021, Khan was elected chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on a nine-year term during the second round of voting, receiving votes from 72 out of 123 member states (62 needed). Khan was the third chief prosecutor elected in the ICC's history, and the first one elected by secret ballot. Khan had been nominated by the United Kingdom. He took office in June 2021, replacing the Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda.

In September 2021, Khan resumed the investigation into crimes committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorassan in Afghanistan which had been suspended in 2020 at the request of the government of Kabul. He dropped the investigation into the war crimes in Afghanistan committed by international forces, including the United States, in Afghanistan. He also dropped the investigation into the United States' use of in secret CIA prisons in Poland, Romania and Lithuania in the early 2000s where kidnapped prisoners were interrogated and tortured for their alleged membership of the Taliban or Al-Qaida. Khan said the investigations were dropped because of the limited financial means of the ICC.

Ukraine related charges
In April 2022, Khan said of the war in Ukraine: "We have reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed." Eleven months later, he applied for two arrest warrants alleging Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova violated two Rome Statute rules against systematic deportation, transfer and hostage-taking. In response, Russia issued a warrant for Khan's arrest.

On 24 June 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian politician and military officer Sergei Shoigu and Russian army general Valery Gerasimov.

Application for charges related to Palestine
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Business Insider reported that a statement by Khan "appeared to suggest" that both Israel and Hamas could be prosecuted by the ICC. According to Khan, the bar for evidence that a hospital, school, or place of worship is being used for military purposes is very high. On 17 November 2023, Khan stated the ICC had received a joint request by South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes. South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor asked Khan why he was able to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Putin, but not for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli government called emergency meetings over concerns the ICC could be preparing arrest warrants against Netanyahu, other senior officials, or officers of the Israeli Defense Forces. It decided it would reach out to the court and 'diplomatic figures with influence' with the aim of blocking the issuing of arrest warrants. Netanyahu raised the matter in his meetings with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and sought their help.

On 24 April 2024, Khan was sent a letter signed by 12 Republican U.S. senators threatening him and other UN jurists and their families with personal consequences if the ICC were to seek an international arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu or other members of the Israeli government. The letter cited the American Service-Members' Protection Act – known informally as "The Hague Invasion Act" – which specifically includes "all means". The signatories said they would view any arrest warrant as "a threat not only to Israel's sovereignty, but also to the sovereignty of the United States". They threatened: "Target Israel and we will target you", and that any further action would "end all American support for the ICC" and "exclude [Khan and his associates and employees] and their families from the United States". The letter ended: "You have been warned."

On 20 May 2024, on the advice of a panel of ICC experts, Khan applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. He also applied for arrest warrants for Hamas' chairman, Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas member Mohammed al-Masri, and the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant. President of the United States Joe Biden called the application "outrageous", while Netanyahu called Khan one of the "great antisemites in modern times" after the announcement. Both accusations were rebuffed by Kenneth Roth.

Other activities
Between 1996 and 1997, Khan was a member of staff at the Law Commission of England and Wales. He is a life member of the Human Rights Institute, International Bar Association (IBA), and a founding director of the Peace and Justice Initiative, a Hague-based NGO focused on effective implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at national levels.

Khan served until 2018 as a member of the executive council and the victims committee of the International Criminal Court Bar Association (ICCBA), and he was the president of the ICCBA from June 2017 to June 2018. At the end of his tenure, Khan was appointed the first honorary president of the ICCBA.

Khan was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2011.

Personal life
Khan's father, a consultant dermatologist, was born in Mardan, Pakistan. His mother, a state registered nurse, was born in the United Kingdom. Khan is a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was first married to Yasmin Rehman Mona, the daughter of the fourth caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mirza Tahir Ahmad. He is currently married to Dato Shyamala Alagendra, a Malaysian lawyer. He has two sons. He has a sister and two brothers, one of whom is the former British Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan.