By Christiane Amanpour, Lauren Kent, Ben Kirby, Claire Calzonetti, CNN
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 reasonab