Le Monde publishes new details of campaign against Karim Khan and ICC
The campaign has taken place against the backdrop of Khan's efforts to build and pursue a case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and other Israeli officials over alleged war crimes.
Khan went on leave in mid-May after an attempt to suspend him, prompted by a senior member of his own office, failed. This was amid an ongoing United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the prosecutor.
In a story published on Friday, the French newspaper quoted British barrister Andrew Cayley, who oversaw the ICC's Palestine investigation, saying Dutch intelligence informed him that he was at risk in The Hague.
Cayley said that in December 2024 he was directly threatened: "I was told I was an enemy of Israel and that I should watch my back."
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Cayley told the Observer in June that he left his role earlier this year fearing US sanctions, and that the pressure severely affected his health.
Le Monde reported on the role allegedly played in the proceedings by Thomas Lynch, a senior legal adviser at the ICC and longstanding friend and colleague of Khan and his wife.
Khan had tasked Lynch, who worked in his office as his special assistant, with liaising with Israel on the Palestine investigation.
According to Le Monde, in May 2024 Lynch suggested that Khan organise a dinner in Jerusalem with prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
The plan was that Netanyahu himself would join them in the middle of the meal.
The newspaper reported that Khan described this as "a remake of Oliver Twist... Netanyahu and I eating roast turkey in front of the hungry Gazans! It's a dangerous idea!"
Le Monde reported that an anonymous source in the ICC said Lynch tried to sabotage Khan's pursuit of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
The source told Le Monde that Lynch "openly said that for him Palestine is not a state, that Israel is not a party to the Court, and that the office should not investigate it".
The source further alleged that Lynch referred sexual harassment allegations against Khan to investigators "to get rid of the prosecutor" and "hijack the process" of applying for arrest warrants.
Le Monde reported that a note written by Lynch was the source of press reports about the misconduct allegations against Khan in October 2024.
Lynch told Le Monde that the reports in its story were "false and misleading".
Cameron's threatening phone call
Le Monde also reported that on 23 April 2024, then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron threatened Khan in a phone call that Britain would withdraw from the ICC if the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
In June, MEE first revealed details of the call based on information from a number of sources - including former staff in Khan's office familiar with the conversation and who have seen the minutes of the meeting.
Cameron told Khan that applying for warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant would be like dropping "a hydrogen bomb", Le Monde reported.
He threatened that the UK would "withdraw from the ICC's founding treaty", the Rome Statute, "if Karim Khan followed through with his intentions".
Exclusive: David Cameron threatened to withdraw UK from ICC over Israel war crimes probe Read More »
In June, Cameron did not respond to MEE's requests for comment and the British foreign office declined to comment.
Le Monde also reported on a meeting on 1 May this year between Khan and British-Israeli ICC lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, which was first revealed by MEE last month.
Le Monde cited a "report of the meeting" which said Kaufman told Khan that if ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were not dropped, he and the ICC would be destroyed.
Kaufman told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu's legal adviser Roy Schondorf and offered Khan a way out, Le Monde reported.
Khan, Kaufman suggested, should reclassify the arrest warrants as confidential. This would allow Israel to challenge them in private.
In response to questions from MEE in July, Kaufman denied threatening Khan. He denied having been authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government and said he had shared his personal views with Khan on the Palestine situation.
Kaufman told Le Monde he "did not dispute the meeting", but said he was looking to help Khan "get out of his mistakes".
Intensifying intimidation campaign
The meeting came less than two weeks before allegations of sexual assault against Khan, which he has strenuously denied, were first published, and as he was reportedly preparing to seek arrest warrants for more members of the Israeli government.
There is no suggestion of any connection between the Kaufman-Khan meeting and the publication of the allegations. Khan went on indefinite leave shortly afterwards.
Exclusive: How Karim Khan's Israel war crimes probe was derailed by threats, leaks and sex claims Read More »
Le Monde quoted Cuno Tarfusser, a former ICC judge, who said Khan going on leave was a "coup d'état".
Tarfusser described the ongoing UN investigation into misconduct allegations against Khan as an "irregular procedure", "tailor-made" and conducted with a "disregard for confidentiality".
On Friday MEE published extraordinary details of the intimidation campaign targeting Khan, which has involved threats and warnings directed at Khan by prominent figures, close colleagues and family friends briefing against him, fears for the prosecutor's safety prompted by a Mossad team in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual assault allegations.
MEE reported details of Lynch's role in the process by which Khan was forced on leave.
Lynch triggered the initial investigation by the ICC's Internal Oversight Mechanism (IOM) into harassment allegations against Khan in May 2024, after Khan told him to follow the established procedures.
On 4 May, just after the investigation was launched, Khan's wife Shyamala Alagendra met up with Lynch. According to the material reviewed by MEE, Lynch privately expressed his own doubts about the allegations and said their timing was 'suspicious'.
ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be 'destroyed' Read More »
But following the publication in May this year of the sexual assault allegations against Khan, Lynch approached the ICC's presidency in a bid to have the prosecutor suspended.
Lynch urged the presidency to start a process by which ICC member states could vote to formally suspend Khan.
When this attempt failed, Lynch approached the two deputies and urged them to make the same case to the presidency.
This followed leaked reports that Khan was preparing to request arrest warrants for more Israeli officials.
It was amid this internal turmoil that the decision was made that Khan should step away on leave while the investigation continued.
Lynch told MEE: "As you are aware, there is an ongoing confidential investigation into this matter that limits my right to reply."
He said questions put to him by MEE were "false and misleading".
Sanctions and pressure
Since being subjected to sanctions by the US in February, Khan has had his American visa revoked, and his wife and children have been banned from travelling to the country. His bank accounts have also been frozen and his credit cards cancelled in the UK.
At present, the progress and future direction of the ICC's investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes rests with Khan's deputies, pending the outcome of the ongoing OIOS investigation.
On 27 May, the Wall Street Journal reported that just before he took leave, the prosecutor had been preparing to seek new warrants for Smotrich and Ben Gvir, Netanyahu's key far-right allies in his coalition government, over their roles in expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Whether or not those applications have been filed is no longer public knowledge after the court recently ordered that any further warrants cannot be publicised.
But the pressure on both the prosecutor's office and the court itself has continued to build, with US sanctions on four ICC judges on 8 June.
In a further threat to the court last month, US State Department legal adviser Reed Rubinstein warned that "all options remain on the table" unless all arrest warrants and the investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes are dropped.
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