Member states of the International Criminal Court voted on Friday to dismiss Karim Khan as prosecutor following allegations of sexual misconduct, according to two diplomatic sources.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, the sources said that 82 of the court’s 125 member states voted in favour of the prosecutor’s removal.
Khan, 56, denies any wrongdoing and his lawyers have called the process that led to the vote unlawful, procedurally unfair and unsupported by evidence.
Khan’s dismissal follows an announcement by the United States that it will launch a renewed diplomatic campaign to dismantle the ICC, which it says is a threat to its sovereignty.
Diplomats running the court’s oversight body decided last month that the British barrister had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior ICC lawyer and should be fired.
Member states largely followed that conclusion in a vote at the United Nations in New York on Friday.