The allegations ended one career. They may not define the legacy left behind by the former ICC chief prosecutor.
Karim Khan’s moment came on Friday. Eighty-two of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) 125 member states voted to remove him as chief prosecutor after finding he had committed serious misconduct.
Khan has consistently denied the allegations and says he will challenge the decision through every legal avenue available.
History, however, may remember more than that.
During five years in office, Khan did more than either of his two predecessors to push the ICC beyond the boundaries it had set for itself during its first two decades.
That is the legacy history must now weigh.
When Khan became the ICC’s third chief prosecutor in 2021, the court faced a familiar criticism.
For almost 20 years, nearly every major investigation had centred on Africa.
Supporters argued the evidence led investigators there. Critics said the world’s only permanent international criminal court appeared reluctant to confront more powerful states.
Khan tried to change that perception.
Under his leadership, the ICC broadened its reach, pursuing cases involving Ukraine, Palestine, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Georgia and the Philippines, while opening an investigation in Venezuela.
The message was consistent: the law should apply equally, regardless of geography, military strength or political influence.
That philosophy defined his tenure.
More than headline cases
The arrest warrants sought against Russian president Vladimir Putin, and later against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, dominated international headlines.
They also overshadowed much of Khan’s quieter work.
He reorganised the Office of the Prosecutor, creating specialist portfolios such as appointing Professor Intisar Rabb as the ICC’s firsts special adviser on Islamic law.
Khan also introduced new policies that encouraged national courts to prosecute international crimes wherever possible, while strengthening cooperation between the ICC and governments investigating atrocities.
The reforms did not stop there. His office developed new policies on environmental crimes, slavery, gender persecution and cyber-enabled crimes.
It also overhauled its guidance on investigating crimes against children and gender-based violence to reflect the realities of modern conflicts.
He invested heavily in technology, expanded partnerships with private organisations and strengthened the office’s ability to gather and analyse digital evidence from modern conflict zones.
Under Khan, the ICC issued more arrest warrants for the four core crimes under the Rome Statute than during the combined tenure of his two predecessors.
His office also revived a legal provision that had never before been used successfully, securing a confirmation hearing in absentia against fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony after years of legal deadlock.
Those reforms rarely made front pages. They may, however, outlast the headlines that did.
The collision with power
Khan’s tenure became inseparable from one of the most politically contentious periods in the ICC’s history.
When he sought the arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes involving the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia, many Western governments applauded the decision.
When he later sought warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant over alleged crimes committed during the war in Gaza, the international reaction changed dramatically.
The United States imposed sanctions on Khan and later expanded measures against other ICC officials. Washington intensified its campaign against the court, while several governments openly questioned its authority.
One warning became especially memorable: “Target Israel and we will target you,” a group of Republican senators warned Khan. He proceeded anyway.
None of that proves the allegations against Khan were politically motivated.
Nor does it diminish the seriousness of the complaint made against him, which deserved a fair and credible investigation.
But the wider context cannot simply be ignored.
His removal came after months of sustained political pressure on the very institution he led, ensuring the debate surrounding his tenure would never be confined to the allegations alone.
A legacy in dispute
Every public career eventually becomes a contest over memory.
Backers will argue Khan expanded international justice beyond its traditional limits and demonstrated that even powerful leaders could face legal scrutiny.
Detractors will remember a prosecutor whose career ended in disgrace after findings of serious misconduct.
History may prove less absolute than either side hopes.
It tends to judge public figures not only by the circumstances of their departure but also by what they changed while they held office.
By that measure, Khan leaves behind a very different ICC from the one he inherited.
The court became more willing to test the reach of international law. It embraced new forms of evidence, broadened the crimes it prioritised and ventured into conflicts many believed lay beyond its practical reach.
Those achievements will not erase the allegations that brought down his career.
Neither should the allegations erase everything that came before them.
The harder verdict
Replacing a prosecutor is straightforward. Judging a legacy rarely is.
The greater question may not be what history concludes about Khan but what his removal says about the future of international justice itself.
His tenure unfolded during an era when legal institutions found themselves confronting increasingly powerful geopolitical interests.
Whether those pressures influenced events will remain fiercely debated.
What cannot be disputed is that the ICC emerged from this episode more divided, more exposed and under greater scrutiny than at any time in recent memory.
Perhaps that is Khan’s most enduring legacy.
He transformed the reach of the world’s highest criminal court, then left office at the very moment its own resilience faced its greatest test.
History will decide which achievement it remembers first. - FMT
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