The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, who is British, has been temporarily barred from practising law in England and Wales by the Bar Standards Board, which regulates the practice of law in those countries. A final decision hinges on the outcome of disciplinary hearings.

Last week, Khan was formally removed from his duties at the ICC, following a temporary suspension. A decision on his permanent status is still pending.

The Bar Standards Board issued a statement saying it would hold disciplinary hearings in four weeks but would not give the reason for Khan’s temporary disbarment. Khan’s lawyers said that the decision to disbar Khan was based on findings of serious misconduct by the ICC’s oversight body, the Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties. However, they added that Khan “unequivocally denies all allegations of impropriety” and that they would be “taking all necessary steps to challenge the decision of the Bureau.”

Karim Khan was accused of sexual harassment of an employee two years ago, and he stepped down in May 2025 amid an investigation into his conduct.

The executive committee of the ICC said it derived its findings from “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 came under fire from the United States for issuing warrants for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson to call for sanctions against the prosecutor. He has since been accused of issuing the warrants to deflect attention away from his personal troubles arising from allegations of sexual harassment as well as of being swayed by Qatar and private British intelligence agencies.

The ICC prosecutor denied Israel complementarity, part of the Rome Statute that says ICC proceedings are a last resort for countries that are willing and able to investigate their own actions and present their findings to the international community. In May 2024, shortly before issuing the warrants, Khan had been scheduled to visit Israel to examine the evidence for himself, but he canceled the trip and instead issued the arrest warrants, prompting scrutiny into his motives.