London (CNN) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) is under intense scrutiny as member countries prepare to vote this month on whether to remove Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
For months, the United Nations watchdog has investigated claims made by a female ICC employee who worked as a direct assistant to Khan. According to a confidential, leaked copy of a UN investigative report that CNN obtained, she alleged that he sexually harassed her and repeatedly subjected her to non-consensual sexual acts, including groping, attempted kissing and digital and genital penetration. Khan has repeatedly denied those claims.
The allegations against Khan first emerged in 2024. But the woman, Sarah, has not spoken publicly until now. Sarah, a lawyer originally from Malaysia who has worked for the ICC since 2017, said she never wanted to be in this position and described feeling “humiliated.” CNN is only identifying her by her first name, at her request.
“I have no other way to describe it but an escalation of attempts,” said Sarah, who is still employed by the ICC, regarding the alleged sexual misconduct — which she says went on for a year after she started working as Khan’s assistant in February 2023.
“(There was) the pawing, the physical nature of it – but it didn’t start that way. Because it was kind of like encroachments on the boundaries slowly – not just physically but emotionally as well,” Sarah told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in a world-exclusive interview.
Sarah described freezing at times and being afraid to say “no” to some of Khan’s advances amid fears of losing her job, her livelihood and her work visa, which allows her to live in the Netherlands with her husband and their son.
“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity. What I think many people don’t understand is that Mr. Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone’s boss,” Sarah said. “And it cannot be consensual.”
The court’s oversight body suspended Khan in June while the disciplinary proceedings played out, and now those proceedings have been referred to the 125 member states of the ICC. Representatives from each member state are expected to decide on July 24 if his suspension will be upheld and what, if any, disciplinary actions will be taken.
Khan and some of his defenders have claimed the allegations against him are part of an effort to damage his reputation after his pursuit of warrants against Israeli officials for alleged war crimes.
Asked about the specific allegations by CNN, Khan’s lead counsel Sareta Ashraph said: “These are serious allegations and they needed to be taken seriously, investigated seriously and undergo a serious judicial review. And that is what has happened.” Ashraph added that “they are allegations which form part of a much larger body of evidence. Mr. Khan has denied and continues to deny them in their entirety – any form of sexual content, relationship, consensual or nonconsensual, with the complainant.”
CNN has obtained a copy of the UN oversight office’s report, circulated internally in December, which found evidence showing a “factual basis” to the claims based on interviews with Sarah, her colleagues and other witnesses. Sarah’s name is redacted from the report and she is referred to simply as “V01” throughout the document.
However, in March, a separate report by the panel of judicial experts convened by the ICC found that there was “insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct measured against the standard of proof of beyond reasonable doubt.” It concluded that the factual findings by the UN watchdog “do not establish misconduct or breach of duty.”
Then earlier this month, The New York Times reported that another internal ICC report found that Khan committed sexual harassment when he engaged in sexual activity with a junior member of his staff, referring to Sarah. It also noted that he initially did not clearly deny a sexual relationship with his subordinate, and that he later sought to dissuade his accuser from pursuing the allegations against him. CNN cannot independently verify the findings of that report, which has not been publicly released.
Khan’s lead counsel said their position is that the UN OIOS report “does not have the same standing as the panel of judges,” adding “it does not apply a standard of proof.” She says the UN investigation’s role was to assemble the facts, and in doing that “it presented a number of conflicting narratives.”
Allegations of escalating non-consensual acts
In the interview with CNN, Sarah described early interactions with Khan that made her uncomfortable. She alleges that the behavior eventually escalated into more aggressive actions, like coming to her hotel room late at night and, on one occasion, pushing to join her for a “nap” and groping her down her leggings while she says she pretended to be asleep.
In a previous interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan, Khan denied that he had any kind of relationship with the staff member, noting that he told UN investigators in his first comments to them that he “completely denied engaging in any harassment, abuse of authority, inappropriate behavior whatsoever,” also highlighting that he cooperated with the investigation.
The UN report, however, states that “Khan would not confirm whether he had had a sexual relationship with V01 (Sarah), even one that was welcomed by her, instead stating that he never engaged in any prohibited conduct in relation to (Sarah) that ‘could be construed as inappropriate, unwelcome or abusive.’”
Khan also told the UN investigators that his tight security arrangements on overseas trips would have made attempts to leave his room without being seen “virtually impossible.”
Sarah told CNN that the security detail did not mean his movements were restricted.
The UN watchdog’s report detailed further allegations of sexual touching at Khan’s home, in his office and on overseas business trips – all of which Sarah said were non-consensual.
According to the UN report, Sarah told investigators that Khan would also sometimes check if she was uncomfortable after such incidents. When asked about this by CNN, she said this did sometimes happen, “but if you know Mr. Khan, he’s not expecting a response from you – Mr. Khan does what he wants.”
Khan alleged in the UN report that Sarah would sometimes insist on going on overseas missions, a characterization that another ICC staff member agreed with. But the staff member noted that it was part of Sarah’s job to assist Khan during missions. Another staff member interviewed for the report noted that Sarah appeared to show signs of anxiety regarding work travel as time went on.
Meanwhile, Sarah told CNN she was trying to carry on doing her job and avoid scrutiny that could damage her future career prospects. At one point, Sarah said she told Khan that if the behaviors continued, she feared she would harm herself.
Khan’s lead counsel Ashraph told CNN that “with regard to that allegation, no medical evidence was presented to (UN) OIOS. Mr. Khan does not recollect ever being informed of that.”
The UN report notes that she was eventually placed on so-called “suicide watch,” citing her husband.
After several colleagues expressed concern about her wellbeing, Sarah told them about the alleged inappropriate sexual conduct. In the months that followed, Sarah described facing regular pressure by Khan and another ICC staffer who worked for him to write a letter saying she had made up the allegations or had no complaint.
Khan denied to the UN investigators that he encouraged her to write such a letter or asking his adviser to do so.
Speculation of Israeli effort to discredit Khan
The allegations against Khan came at a moment of intense scrutiny of the ICC.
Months before the initial accusations were reported in international media, Khan announced in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Amanpour that the ICC was seeking arrest warrants for top Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The timing led to speculation – both within the ICC and outside the court – that Sarah’s allegations were part of a state-sponsored effort by Israel to discredit Khan. The UN oversight report noted that Khan suggested to investigators that the complaints against him were part of a broader push to damage his reputation, citing his pursuit of arrest warrants against Israel.
Sarah, though, has vehemently denied all allegations of working as a “state actor” for Israel. The UN watchdog report found that “multiple credible witnesses dismissed the notion that she was a spy,” with one ICC employee telling investigators that the idea she was an Israeli agent was “a load of bull.”
“I think many parties have for their own agenda conflated the two things,” Sarah told CNN. “That conflation has only helped to distract and deflect from the validity of that complaint.”
She also noted that she underwent the highest level of security clearances to work for the court, under both Khan and former Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
“If ever there was even a hint of suspicion that I was a state agent of any kind, I would have been dismissed,” she said.
Sarah also said that part of her motivation for speaking publicly was because her anonymity was allowing other parties to craft a narrative about her to suit their own interests. When asked about her view of the validity of the application for arrest warrants against Israeli officials, she said she could not speak about specific court investigations but added that “I fully and entirely support the court’s investigations.”
Second woman accuses Khan of sexual misconduct
The UN oversight report also detailed allegations of a second court employee, “Patricia,” who worked as an unpaid intern for Khan’s team in 2009 and agreed to speak to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the condition that her name is changed for anonymity. After the initial allegations were reported in the media, “Patricia” said she also came forward to speak to the UN investigation about her own experiences working for Khan in her 20s.
She described feeling uncomfortable that Khan had asked his team to work from his home, saying that “without fail, every time I was there, it was a constant onslaught of him coming onto me, groping me, grabbing me, kissing my face, touching my hair … trying to get me to engage in intimate activity with him, which I constantly had to bat off.”
She also described an incident in which Khan “stood behind me, groping my breasts” while she was sitting at her desk. “On that occasion, I felt that I was frozen and was unable to protest or stop him,” she told CNN.
Khan’s lead counsel told CNN on Thursday: “We deny these allegations in their entirety, but they’re also not new allegations. They’re allegations which have formed part of the evidential record and which were seen alongside the evidence of over 30 other witnesses as well as the evidence of Mr. Khan himself … the complete evidential picture paints a far different, far different picture.”
Meanwhile, “Patricia” told CNN that she felt compelled to come forward after reading other media coverage of the allegations against Khan.
“At the time it happened to me, I felt very isolated, and as many people do under these circumstances, I felt that perhaps I was the only person who had experienced these behaviors,” she told CNN.
In the years since she was a court intern, “he has only accumulated more and more power, he has only grown more and more emboldened.”
Winding road to potential disciplinary action
Nearly two years have passed since the initial allegations were reported in international media. The investigation process has been criticized – by Khan and others – for being long and convoluted.
The ICC’s oversight body said in a statement that its decision to suspend Khan “was based on the report of an investigation undertaken by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the underlying evidence, the advice of an ad hoc panel of judicial experts, and written submissions.”
Khan and his lawyers have claimed that the entire investigative process has been unfair, with new bodies and rules created for this case. Khan has argued that only the court’s Independent Oversight Mechanism was authorized to investigate complaints against ICC officials, and he suggested that the UN’s OIOS watchdog investigation be concluded due to procedural irregularities.
As representatives of all ICC member states prepare to make a final decision on whether to remove Khan next week, Sarah told CNN that she believes coming forward with allegations has damaged her own reputation either way and made her future uncertain.
She told CNN she feels “incredibly nervous, humiliated. I expect a lot of backlash once this goes public. It’s not an easy thing to do,” noting how “I have used up all my savings – if anything, I have completely and utterly damaged my future career prospects.” But, she said, “I also think it’s very important.”
“I know that my story does not change based on the outcome of the vote,” Sarah said, adding that she strongly believes in the work she and her colleagues do in The Hague.
“I work at the court because I believe in what the court does … which is also the reason why I didn’t come forward for so long. Because I was so scared and so worried that doing so would affect the court’s work,” she said.
“Long before I joined the court, there has always been pressures on the court, even during Prosecutor Bensouda’s time,” Sarah said. “And there will always be criticisms. But I don’t believe that the legitimacy of the court should stand on the reputation of any one man.”
CNN’s Nadia Lee and Zoe Cantley contributed to this report.
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