The British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is defying pressure from senior colleagues to step aside amid a probe into sexual misconduct allegations, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Well-placed sources have told this newspaper that Karim Khan KC, the controversial barrister seeking the arrest of Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is ignoring direct pleas from three of his highest-ranking colleagues who say he should withdraw from his role immediately.

Mr Khan, 54, announced his war crimes case against Israel in May just two weeks after being told that a female lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) had made serious allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

An external investigation was launched six months later in November and was understood at the time to be examining allegations that Mr Khan groped the woman in his office and ‘sexually touched’ her while on a work trip, which he has strenuously denied.

The MoS has since been told that the complaint also includes other serious allegations of sexual misconduct. It comes amid a crisis for the ICC, and for Mr Khan himself, who last week was banned from entering the United States by Donald Trump as part of an executive order sanctioning court officials.

Now the MoS has been told that three of Mr Khan’s senior colleagues have told him he should take a leave of absence while the investigation into his conduct goes on.

They are said to include American lawyer Brenda Hollis, the leader of the ICC’s Palestine investigation, who stood at Mr Khan’s side when he controversially announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Insiders claim there is mounting anger within the ICC at Mr Khan’s refusal to step aside and over the way the sexual misconduct investigation, which is being led by a UN body named the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), is being handled.

Last night one ICC source said: ‘[Mr Khan] has been asked to step aside by senior management and he is just refusing to do it. That’s been happening for a while. Almost all of his senior management have told him he should step aside and he just adamantly refuses.’

The British chief prosecutor (pictured) of the International Criminal Court is defying pressure from senior colleagues to step aside amid a probe into sexual misconduct allegations, The Mail on Sunday can reveal

Well-placed sources have told this newspaper that Karim Khan KC, the controversial barrister seeking the arrest of Israel ‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured), is ignoring direct pleas from three of his highest-ranking colleagues who say he should withdraw from his role immediately

Mr Khan, 54, announced his war crimes case against Israel in May just two weeks after being told that a female lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) had made serious allegations of sexual misconduct against him (pictured, Mr Khan with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky)

Another said: ‘It was being recommended that he take a leave of absence even when the investigation was being set up, and I think there’s increasing pressure now but he is still deciding not to go ahead with it.’

The MoS has discovered that, since he was elected in 2021 for a nine-year term, Mr Khan has personally decided that at least five ICC staff members should be suspended from duty when separate allegations of misconduct were made against them and before they had been investigated.

Court insiders also claim that the alleged victim has been subject to a vicious smear campaign in recent months. Multiple sources said that a small group of ICC officials have been spreading grotesque and baseless rumours about her motives in what is thought to be an attempt to discredit and silence her. The MoS has chosen not to repeat the unsubstantiated rumours.

‘A lot of staff have been very supportive,’ one source said. ‘But then there are some people that are in key positions who are actively working to undermine her credibility and to dismiss her allegations.’

Some at the ICC fear that the controversy, coupled with the new threat from President Trump, is placing the court’s entire future in peril.

‘The sad thing is, it is just going to bring the court into disrepute in terms of how long it’s going to take,’ a source said. ‘Someone obviously at some point is going to look into how the institution as a whole handled it, and it’s not going to be good.’

Lawyers representing Mr Khan last night said that previous investigations into elected ICC officials have not required those officials to step aside, while the move to suspend other non-elected staff members during investigations ‘involved materially different circumstances’.

An external investigation was launched in November and was understood at the time to be examining allegations that Mr Khan (pictured) groped the woman in his office and ‘sexually touched’ her while on a work trip, which he has strenuously denied

The MoS has since been told that the complaint against Mr Khan (left) also includes other serious allegations of sexual misconduct (pictured, Mr Khan with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan)

It comes amid a crisis for the ICC, and for Mr Khan himself (pictured), who last week was banned from entering the United States by Donald Trump as part of an executive order sanctioning court officials

The three senior colleagues who have urged Mr Khan to step down are said to include American lawyer Brenda Hollis, the leader of the ICC’s Palestine investigation, who stood at Mr Khan’s side when he controversially announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu (right) and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant (left)

Mr Khan’s lawyers added: ‘Mr Khan’s decision not to step aside was made following extensive consultations with current and former elected officials, as well as senior staff.’

When the allegations were first reported in October, Mr Khan said: ‘There is no truth to suggestions of such misconduct. I have worked in diverse contexts for 30 years and there has never been such a complaint lodged against me by anyone.’

The ICC declined to comment.