The woman’s allegations of sexual misconduct against International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan have thrust her into a legal and political storm stretching far beyond The Hague.
Today, the Kuala Lumpur-born lawyer is the human face of the biggest crisis ever to engulf the International Criminal Court (ICC).
By stepping out of anonymity in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Sarah transformed what had largely been an internal disciplinary process into a public reckoning.
Her allegations against ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan are no longer confined to confidential reports and legal submissions.
They now sit before a global audience just days before the court’s 125 member states decide whether Khan, 56, should remain in office.
The timing was impossible to ignore. Sarah’s account did not introduce new allegations. Those had already been investigated over many months.
But hearing directly from the complainant changed the public conversation. Instead of reading leaked documents or official summaries, the world heard her describe what she says happened while serving as Khan’s special assistant.
For the ICC, that presents an institutional challenge that extends well beyond one workplace complaint.
The court now faces a question that goes to the heart of its credibility: How does an institution dedicated to the rule of law respond when its own internal processes produce competing conclusions?
From Kuala Lumpur to The Hague
Sarah is the only Malaysian currently employed by the ICC.
Born in Kuala Lumpur, she studied law in the United Kingdom before joining the court in 2017. She later married a Dutch national and built a career within one of the world’s most prestigious legal institutions.
There is another Malaysian caught in that fallout.
Khan’s wife, Shyamala Alagendra, is herself a respected international criminal lawyer whose career has included senior appointments before several international tribunals, including the ICC.
Throughout the controversy, she has remained publicly silent.
Sarah’s own background also offers a Malaysian point of reference. Her father was involved in a widely reported dispute with a local celebrity in the 1990s and has more recently faced separate legal issues. Those matters form part of her family history but have no bearing on the allegations now before the ICC.
Sarah was never a courtroom prosecutor. Instead, colleagues describe her role as administrative and operational.
In February 2023, she became Khan’s special assistant, handling travel, scheduling, briefings and other duties that placed her in daily contact with the prosecutor.
That proximity — not prosecutorial authority — is what eventually drew her into the centre of an international controversy.
According to Sarah, Khan subjected her to a pattern of escalating sexual misconduct during official travel and in work settings over more than a year.
She alleges unwanted touching, attempted kissing and other non-consensual sexual acts. She told CNN that the imbalance of power made meaningful consent impossible.
“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,” she said.
Khan, a British barrister, has consistently denied every allegation.
Through his legal team, he maintains there was never any sexual relationship — consensual or otherwise — and argues the allegations have been thoroughly investigated.
Competing narratives
Sarah says she decided to speak publicly because others had begun shaping her story in her absence.
That explanation deserves consideration. So too does another reality.
Her interview came barely a week before the Assembly of States Parties convenes in New York to decide Khan’s future.
The evidence before member states has not changed. But the public environment certainly has.
The interview ensured that attention shifted from legal documents and procedural arguments to the complainant herself.
Whatever the outcome of this week’s vote, Sarah’s appearance has become part of the wider contest surrounding this case.
That does not make her allegations stronger or weaker. It simply reflects the fact that this dispute is now being fought in two arenas: through formal legal processes and through competing public narratives.
An institution facing its own test
The ICC was created to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Now it finds itself examining allegations involving its own chief prosecutor.
That is precisely what institutions committed to the rule of law are expected to do.
But the case has become unusually complex because different bodies examining the same material have reached different conclusions — or, more accurately, applied different standards.
The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services conducted the investigation after Sarah lodged her complaint.
Separately, the ICC Bureau appointed an independent judicial panel comprising three distinguished jurists: Justice Seymour Panton of Jamaica, Justice Paul Lemmens of Belgium and Justice Bess Nkabinde Theron of South Africa.
After reviewing the investigative record and thousands of pages of supporting material over three months, the panel unanimously concluded that the evidence did not establish misconduct or breach of duty by Khan under the applicable legal framework.
Yet the matter did not end there.
Instead, the ICC bureau voted to suspend Khan and referred the issue to the Assembly of States Parties for a final decision.
That sequence now lies at the heart of the controversy.
Critics argue the bureau appears to have treated the judicial panel’s conclusion not as the outcome of the process, but as an obstacle to overcome.
Supporters of the bureau maintain that member states remain entitled to make their own assessment under the Rome Statute.
The disagreement is no longer simply about alleged misconduct.
It is increasingly about institutional governance, due process and where legal judgment ends and political decision-making begins.
Khan’s lead counsel, New York-based lawyer Sareta Ashraph, has challenged the bureau’s approach.
In written responses to questions from FMT, she argues that the bureau departed from the unanimous findings of the judges it had appointed. Her arguments will be examined in a separate FMT report.
For Sarah, however, the story remains intensely personal. For the ICC, it has become existential.
When law collides with politics
The allegations surfaced as Khan was pursuing the ICC’s most politically explosive investigation.
In May 2024, he sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
The move drew fierce criticism from Israel and the United States, while supporters hailed it as proof that no leader should stand above international law.
The timing fuelled intense speculation.
Khan has argued that the allegations against him became entangled with efforts to undermine both him and the court.
Sarah has firmly rejected any suggestion that she acted on behalf of Israel or any foreign government, insisting her complaint arose solely from her own experience.
What is beyond dispute is that the case no longer exists in isolation. It now sits at the intersection of workplace misconduct, institutional governance and international politics.
Adding another layer to the controversy, a report suggested that Sarah was among staff members who urged Khan to proceed more cautiously over the Israel warrants, concerned about timing and possible political consequences.
Her role was not to make prosecutorial decisions, but her position placed her close to discussions surrounding one of the court’s most consequential cases.
The geopolitical pressure surrounding the ICC had been building for months.
Before Khan announced the warrants, a group of influential US senators warned him: “Target Israel and we will target you.” Khan proceeded nonetheless.
Since then, Washington has imposed sanctions on Khan and expanded pressure on the court, reinforcing concerns among supporters that the ICC is confronting forces far beyond a disciplinary dispute.
Friday’s vote will therefore decide far more than the future of one prosecutor.
It will test whether the world’s permanent international criminal court can convince its member states — and the wider public — that justice inside the institution is guided by the same principles of fairness, independence and due process that it demands of others. - FMT
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