Former United Nations representative Mohamad Safa, who resigned over an alleged planned nuclear attack on Iran, has questioned the dismissal of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Karim Khan.
Mr Safa, in a Facebook post on Tuesday, said he finds it suspicious that Mr Khan’s sexual misconduct allegations came after he demanded that the ICC issue a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes in Gaza.
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Mr Safa, who served as the main representative of Patriotic Vision at the UN, said no evidence to back this allegation was ever presented to the public. The organisation holds special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.
“In 2024, ICC judges and Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan were pursuing arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister for war crimes committed in Gaza.
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“Suddenly, nearly a month after knowing about the arrest warrants, a woman only identified as “Sarah” accused Prosecutor Karim Khan of sexually assaulting her, with no reports or evidence shared publicly!
“That same year, Karim Khan denied allegations of sexual misconduct, and a panel of judges cleared him,” Mr Safa wrote.
Last Friday, member states of the ICC voted to dismiss Karim Khan as prosecutor over allegations of sexual misconduct. Reuters reported that 82 of the court’s 125 member states voted in favour of the prosecutor’s removal.
Mr Khan had been on suspension before the states sat to vote on his status last week.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that he was suspended in June after the ICC executive committee voted to refer the case to the court’s 125 member states.
Allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr Khan surfaced in 2024. A third party had reported his alleged misconduct with a female staff member to the ICC, triggering an investigation by the court’s Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM). Mr Khan has been accused of non-consensual behaviour over an extended period. The case was, however, closed after the victim refused to participate.
Mr Safa, in his post, mentioned this case, stating that Karim Khan denied allegations of sexual misconduct, and a panel of judges cleared him.
“Also in that same year, pressure on Karim Khan continued; the US imposed sanctions on Karim Khan and dozens of other ICC officials. Not for the sexual assaults, but for the arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister!” he wrote.
Mr Khan, who has been under US sanctions since 2024 for demanding the arrest of Mr Netanyahu, saw his travails compound after a second referral on the case was made in October 2024.
This time, the case was moved to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) for a broader investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of authority.
The probe ran for nearly a year while the ICC was under intense pressure. By December 2025, the OIOS had produced over 5,000 pages of evidence and testimony, which were subsequently reviewed by a panel of three judges, who were tasked with advising on whether Mr Khan’s conduct constituted serious misconduct.
In 2025, he also took voluntary leave from the ICC to address the allegations. The panel, in March 2026, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Khan.
The case was subsequently transferred to the state parties, who then voted to dismiss him.
“The case should have been dismissed at this point! Three investigations, three different investigators, no evidence of misconduct,” Mr Safa declared.
“But Netanyahu wasn’t satisfied with that. He didn’t accept the outcome of the repeated investigations, which found no evidence of misconduct. And so, they referred the case to a vote at the ICC’s assembly; they rewrote the rules and convicted him through a vote—not through an investigation, but by a vote!
“People read the latest headlines—heavily promoted by their leveraging media influence—but people deserve to know the truth about what is happening in our world and what the media does not want you to know,” he added.
“If the issue concerns the sexual misconduct allegations levelled against “Khan,” why were sanctions imposed on other ICC judges who participated in issuing the arrest warrant? Why were my bank accounts closed because of my statements and reports at the UN condemning Israeli war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza?” he further queried.
Tayab Ali, head of Mr Khan’s legal team, also pointed out that Mr Khan was removed “by an executive vote while under US sanctions and the Court is under immense political pressure”.
Meanwhile, Mr Safa resigned as a UN-affiliated diplomat in March and subsequently accused the UN of preparing for a scenario involving the possible use of nuclear weapons on Iran.
He said then that he resigned from his role to “leak the information.” He later claimed that some senior figures at the UN had been “serving a powerful lobby” and not the UN itself.
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