Britain’s Karim Khan sworn in as new ICC prosecutor

THE HAGUE: Britain’s Karim Khan was sworn in on Wednesday as the new prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), facing huge challenges, including investigations into the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan and the Philippines.

Khan, 51, a former defence lawyer for the Hague-based tribunal, was elected by ICC member states in February to serve a nine-year tenure at the world’s only permanent war crimes court.

He has been left with a bulging case file by his predecessor Fatou Bensouda, who extended the ICC’s reach so dramatically that she was hit by US sanctions but also suffered a series of high-profile failures.

“The ICC is in a crucial phase, it has faced criticism for not being as effective as states have wished,” Carsten Stahn, international criminal law professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, told AFP.

But Stahn said Khan could bring “new momentum” and had a “window of opportunity to amend the functioning” of the court, which has also been criticised for the high salaries of its judges and its slow moving processes.

Khan took a public oath of office in a ceremony at the ICC, making him just the court’s third prosecutor since it was founded in 2002 to try people for the world’s worst crimes.

“I solemnly undertake that I will perform my duties and exercise my powers as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously,” he said.

Khan previously led a special UN probe into crimes by the Islamic State extremist group and, more controversially, also represented late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam at the ICC.

Bensouda has left him with a full in-tray, including a probe into the Philippines war on drugs that she announced on Monday, an investigation into alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In her farewell statement, Bensouda said she had “made my decisions, with careful deliberation—but without fear or favour. Even in the face of adversity. Even at considerable personal cost”.

The British lawyer will meanwhile have to contend with the outright opposition of key countries that have refused to join the ICC, including the United States, Israel, China and Russia.

Amnesty International said Khan’s appointment was a chance for “revitalisation” of the ICC, but that he would face challenges in the job.

“He will be under pressure and we hope he will proceed as Fatou Bensouda in independence and without fear or favour,” Matthew Cannock, head of Amnesty’s Centre for International Justice, told AFP.