ICC: Karim Khan, a charismatic lawyer experienced in international cases

Karim Khan, July 27, 2019, in Baghdad.

The British lawyer will become the third prosecutor in the history of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

© AFP - SABAH ARAR

Text by: Stéphanie Maupas Follow

7 min

The British Karim Khan was elected, Friday February 12, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He will take office on June 15 for a nine-year term, and will succeed the Gambian magistrate, Fatou Bensouda. 

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From our correspondent in The Hague,

White smoke has finally left the Assembly of 123 States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC), meeting in New York on February 12.

Britain's Karim Khan, current

head of the UN investigation 

into Daesh's crimes in Iraq, was elected by 72 votes in the second ballot.

He will succeed Gambian magistrate

Fatou Bensouda

, who will leave the Court on June 15. 

The first prosecutor,

Argentinian Luis Moreno Ocampo

, was elected in 2003 with the idea of ​​coaxing Americans into the illusory hope that they will one day join this Court.

His deputy, Fatou Bensouda, had succeeded him in order to reconcile the Africans, denouncing a jurisdiction that has become, according to them, the instrument of regime change policies.

The third prosecutor of the Court, founded by treaty in 1998 and established in The Hague four years later, will have to be that of "the reform".

Because the record of his two predecessors is now close to the unacceptable for States, and in particular those who pay the bill.

Only five convictions have been pronounced in eighteen years while many cases have ended in dismissals or acquittals.

Beyond the statistics, a 350-page audit concluded in September draws a severe assessment of the Court and the criminal policy of the first two prosecutors.

► Read also: ICC: an investigation report overwhelms the management of the former prosecutor Moreno Ocampo

Karim Khan will therefore have to reform, renew his teams, rebuild investigation and prosecution strategies and create new cooperation relations with States.

He will head an office of more than 300 investigators, analysts, prosecutors, with a budget of some 50 million euros. 

Surveys in more than ten countries

When he takes office, the new prosecutor will find on his office files of investigations opened in more than a dozen countries, including those, the most sensitive, on Afghanistan and Palestine for which

Fatou Bensouda

makes the subject to sanctions by the Trump administration and which the Biden administration has still not lifted.

During the campaign, the Briton set out some guidelines for his upcoming picks.

Karim Khan intends to bring the Court closer to the main stakeholders, most often survivors, to promote trials close to the sites of crimes and to involve nationals of the countries under investigation. 

At 50, the very charismatic lawyer has 23 years of career in international justice.

First legal advisor to the prosecutor in the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda, he then pleaded, for the defense or the victims, on the benches of the courts for Sierra Leone, Timor Eastern, Kosovo, Cambodia, Lebanon, etc.

At the ICC, he successfully defended

Kenya's vice-president William Ruto

, Sudanese rebel Idriss Abou Garda, and for a few months, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi.

In the courtrooms, his pleadings slam, as when he pleaded the dismissal in favor of William Ruto.

The lawyer speaks quickly, like all enthusiasts, and wins success.

At the dawn of the next nine years, his election as head of the prosecutor's office will have been a real battle. 

A two-year campaign

The

electoral process

will have lasted almost two years.

Karim Khan finally won against Irish lawyer Fergal Gaynor, Spaniard Carlos Castresana and Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi.

The Briton, of Pakistani father, should have been nominated by acclamation on February 8, but with 15 minutes of the final gong, Spain broke the consensus and put forward its candidate, forcing the states parties to vote.

A choice which then questions because Carlos Castresana is only supported by a dozen countries.

“ 

A coup d'état! 

», Thus comment in turn a lawyer and a diplomat.

This twist is the umpteenth in a tough battle, which began in October 2019. Eighty-nine candidates took the starting line. 

► Read also: Election of the ICC prosecutor: four candidates to succeed Fatou Bensouda

To depoliticize the election, the States had set up a Committee supposed to select the most qualified.

But without fearing the absurd, they appointed diplomats rather than bringing in former international prosecutors, more qualified to assess the skills of candidates.

From the outset, NGOs, first and foremost Open Society, undertook intense lobbying, demanding a tight control procedure intended to guarantee the “high morality” of the candidates.

The Court's governance problems mark its history.

The initiative is therefore beneficial and welcomed everywhere.

But as the process progresses, Open Society uses this vetting process to slow down or speed up the process, apparently in favor of candidate Gaynor.

Civil society organizations play an unprecedented role in this ICC electoral process 

" regrets, in a letter of September 2020, Gunnar Ekeløve-Slydal, of the Helsinki Norway Committee, who invites them to "

 take a step back 

".

From New York, a court administrator believes that "

 the NGOs have played a funny game in this story

 ".

They will emerge undeniably divided from these two electoral years. 

The Golden calf

This campaign was peppered with rumors and anonymous accusations.

In the home stretch, supporters of Fergal Gaynor have mobilized considerable resources, denounced by the supporters of Karim Khan as a real " 

smear campaign

 ".

Because instead of praising the qualities of the Irishman, his supporters, like the former American ambassador Stephen Rapp, member of the office of the Commission for Justice and Accountability (CIJA), an NGO where Fergal Gaynor worked for a long time, decide to smear Karim Khan. 

This campaign will have largely abandoned questions of funds and the future of the International Criminal Court, to focus on the careers of each other.

With the creation of the ICC, a multitude of foundations, consultants or private companies have emerged and revolve around it, multiplying the risks of conflicts of interest, and giving rise to trench wars all the more aggressive as the peace industry is a narrow market.

There are risks in letting the ICC "

 become the golden calf around which a few individuals dance in search of a position or a promotion 

", moreover recently wrote the Norwegian professor Morten Bergsmo.

► To read also: The British Karim Khan elected next prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

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