ICC changes voting rules to stitch up prosecutor Khan for US and Israel

The ruling body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has changed its voting rules in an apparent attempt to please the US and Israel and stitch up its chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

Middle East Eye reported that:

The executive body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has changed the voting process on the potential removal of Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan from a two-stage vote to a single vote in an apparent break with its own rules

Effectively, the change lowers the threshold for the removal of Khan as prosecutor.

ICC retributive manoeuvres

Israel and the US have pressured and manoeuvred for Khan’s dismissal ever since he applied for war crimes arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yo’av Gallant. The Bureau is staging the latest manoeuvre despite repeated findings by independent legal experts that Khan was innocent of any wrongdoing.

Carter Ruck, Khan’s UK lawyers, said that it had not been notified of the change from the ICC, adding:

Altering the rules of a named individual’s case partway through, to his disadvantage and without notice to him, raises the most serious questions of lawfulness and of basic fairness.

Featured image via the Canary