In December 2025 I caught you up on the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s trials, tribulations, and triumphs. It’s time for an update.
1. The ICC Prosecutor (Karim Khan) is still caught up in a scandal
It’s been hard keeping up with this messy story. I’ve got you.
May 2024: A member of Khan’s office accused him of sexual misconduct. An internal ICC investigation was opened and closed within a week, because the victim refused to cooperate with it.
November 2024: The head of the 125-member Assembly of States Parties launched a UN investigation instead. Both the victim and Khan cooperated.
December 2025: UN investigators submitted a confidential 150-page report with 5000 (!) pages of evidence to a panel of three independent judges. They cleared Khan; to them, the evidence didn’t prove he carried out sexual misconduct.
March 2026: The judges cleared him.
June 2026: The Bureau (a diplomatic/political body and the ICC’s executive/oversight committee made up of a President, 2 Vice Presidents and 18 rotating ICC member states) rejected the judges’ decision.
Plus, 14 out of 21 voted to temporarily suspend Khan.
To them, he is guilty of sexual misconduct.
July 2026: A special session of the Assembly of States Parties is scheduled for 24 July 2026 in New York to vote on his fate. (Stay tuned for a SAIL post then!)
The issue is controversial for at least three reasons:
First, should the view of politically appointed diplomats overrule the view of a panel of independent judges?
Second, the Bureau changed how the vote works.
Originally, there were supposed to be two separate votes: first on whether Khan did something wrong (and how serious it was), then (only if needed!) a second vote on whether to actually remove him.
Instead, states voted once, deciding both questions together.
Splitting the vote lets states judge the facts without the pressure of also deciding his fate.
Combining them blurs that line, and doing it right after the judges cleared him makes it look like the rules were changed to get a different result.
Third, all of this is happening while the US is punishing the ICC with sanctions, because the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Khan’s supporters say this is why he’s under attack: not because of what he’s accused of, but because he pushed forward with those warrants.
The bigger picture is that this scandal could harm trust in the ICC (“if its own prosecutor is under investigation, how solid is its moral authority?”).
2. ICC judges are fighting back against U.S. sanctions
Trump slapped sanctions (here and here) on 9 ICC staff members, because the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Sanctions mean those ICC staff members can’t access money in a bank account, use credit cards, use Amazon/Google, and more.
The update is those judges have filed a lawsuit before US courts, arguing the decision is unlawful. If they win, sanctions could possibly be unfrozen. Let’s see what happens.
3. A bunch of countries have pulled out of the ICC
Last year Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced they’re leaving the ICC.
Now, they’ve actually gone ahead and pulled the trigger.
It’ll take one year from now to enter into effect, so they’re still parties until June 2027.
The ICC should take advantage to progress as much as possible in the ongoing Mali investigation between now and then.
After June 2027, the Mali investigation can still continue, but will be harder without Mali being obligated to cooperate (e.g., arrest suspects, hand over evidence, etc.)
Better news: Hungary was on track to leave the ICC… until a new government came to power and reversed the decision.
The new leader has even said Hungary will arrest Netanyahu if he ever sets foot there. Quite the reversal, given Hungary used to be one of his biggest allies.
… I’ll end this post on that positive note!
The topic of this post was requested by SAIL subscriber Aditya Roy (@4128). If you have a topic making news headlines you'd like covered, drop a comment or contact hello@learnsail.org.
Other SAIL posts you might enjoy:
Thanks Yusra for the shout out