The dismissal a fortnight ago of one Karim Khan, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is nothing short of good riddance!
Finally, he’s gone. Gone with his bias. To the Majority World, Khan was modern day’s face of neo-colonialism. He was an irritant to Africa and the Global South, and utterly vexatious to the spirit – and that’s putting it mildly.
Throughout his reign as the top ICC prosecutor, Khan shamelessly went after Africans while blatantly ignoring excesses by Western leaders and powers aligned with the West.
Khan was recently shown the exit door by a majority vote of ICC member-states who voted 82 out of 125 for his instant dismissal in what has been described as “an unprecedented move”.
Khan has been under investigation for two years over allegations of sexual misconduct. The significance of Khan’s unceremonious sacking was accentuated by the announcement that another African country – this time Chad – had also notified the UN of its withdrawal from the Rome Statute.
In a parting shot, Chad described the ICC as “ineffective and biased” against Africa and the Global South. The Chadian authorities further pointed to the “disproportionate focus of the ICC investigations on African nations as evidence of the court’s politicization”.
In quitting the controversial court, Chad joined Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger who recently rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction over their respective sovereignty.
The sacking of Khan was not only humiliating to the once seemingly untouchable blue-eyed boy of the West who clearly protected and defended the West by nefarious ways and hunted down Africans with unflinching determination and commitment.
When the West, including NATO, went after Russia – imposing unprecedented barrage of economic sanctions and attempting to isolate Moscow internationally, Khan joined in the fray, issuing a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin on grounds of unproven war crimes in the very early days of the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
NATO has since confirmed that Ukraine is its front in a proxy war against Russia, carry over from the Cold War.
Khan hastened to issue the warrant of arrest for the Russian President without concluding his investigation. His actions were interpreted as politically motivated as the Western powers at war with Russia suddenly used Khan’s arrest warrant to restrict President Putin’s international movement.
The warrant of arrest was also used politically at the UN and other international forums by Russia’s Western adversaries who labelled the Russian leader a “war criminal” sought by Khan and the ICC.
Khan was lauded as a fearless leader of morally upright standards. His warrant of arrest was so impactful it resulted in President Putin being unable to attend the BRICS Heads of State Summit in August 2023 that was held in South Africa. Pretoria had also been put under immense pressure by the West to arrest President Putin if he dared attended the BRICS Summit on grounds that SA was a signatory to the Rome Statute and therefore dutybound to effect the arrest of the Russian President if he attended the summit.
Across the Global South, evidence was abounding that Khan and the ICC were hellbent on chasing weaker mortals in Africa and the Global South to show evidence of the ICC’s “good work” through dubious application of international law.
Khan recently came under increasing scrutiny across the Global South when he ignored Israeli genocide against the Palestinians despite South Africa laying charges against the Jewish State at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, where the ICC is also located.
In the aftermath of a wave of protests by the Global South nations, Khan’s belatedly issued a warrant of arrest for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a couple of his cabinet colleagues. But, playing it safe, Khan further laced Netanyahu’s arrest warrant with those of the leadership of Hamas. Israel assassinated all of the Hamas leaders, sparing literally no one.
For allegedly crossing the line, Washington rebuked Khan sternly, and warned the Scot of unbearable repercussions for his actions if he dared to issue arrest warrant against the Israeli leadership. The Trump administration further threatened sanctions against Khan and any ICC official – prosecutors and judges in particular – who could be found to have acted antagonistically against the Israeli leaders.
This was Khan’s undoing against his Western protection and unwavering backing. He had seemingly bitten a hand that fed him. As Khan was shown the door two weeks ago, he was also stripped of his immunity. This left him completely naked.
Russia has been the first country to act against the “naked” Khan. Moscow wasted not to and issued extradition order for Khan to face Russian law in Russian courts.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “We hope this (stripping of immunity) will help secure extradition to Russia so that he can be held accountable for attempting to initiate criminal prosecution against a person known to be innocent and for the attempted attack on persons under international protection.”
Russia, who is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, described the ICC as a “sinking ship”, pointing to the announcement by Venezuela, too, that Caracas was following the African nations from the Sahel region in quitting the ICC. The Philippines and Burundi have also quit the international court in previous years.
Khan’s exit from the ICC, and the manner of his departure, has dented the image of the ICC. In fact, the ICC’s very existence is under threat. This is according to Prof Said Tans, Lebanese political scientist who is also professor of international law, who said: “Khan’s dismissal and the lifting of immunity constitute a serious setback for the Rome Statute, with the ICC’s authority and trust having diminished considerably.”
A Nigerian geopolitical commentator, Andrew Emwanta, was quoted as saying Africa’s increasing withdrawal from the ICC means “a vote of no confidence”.
He further said: “With Western interests being opposed to African interests, the alternative is an African concept of international law.”
He said a day was coming when there would no longer be an ICC because gradually African countries are withdrawing, “and at some point, the ICC would have lost its usefulness”.
I have previously argued that the greatest travesty of justice was the ICC’s penchant for blatant double-standards. The Hague-based court under the disgraced Khan was for the longest time shameless in applying the cowboy mantra of “different strokes for different folks”.
Responding to the withdrawals from the Rome Statute, the ICC said the move risks “weakening global efforts to end impunity and undermining the pursuit of justice”.
This is the kind of stuff Africans and the Global South loathe to hear. It is a statement loaded with hypocrisy by double-standard expert practitioners of note.
International justice system decrees all nations equal before the law regardless of the size of their economy, geopolitical stature or influence. Yet the ICC has consistently made a mockery of this salient factor, protecting the powerful Western nations by playing blind to their human rights crimes in their imperial escapades in foreign lands whilst nailing the weak Africans with harshest punishment for their role in domestic strife.
The Edinburgh-born Khan will hopefully return to Britain, now that the emperor is stark naked. There, I predict, he will most probably be lauded for acting against the much-
maligned Russian President, and for doing pretty little-to-nothing against the mighty West, and their anointed allies such as Israel.
Khan and the ICC are a good example of the fading value of international diplomacy. My only hope for Khan is that the Dutch government pursue him criminally for his sexual misconduct, and make an example of him as an irresponsible officer of the court who should have known better but was instead caught with his pants down.
In my book, Khan is proof that even the mighty can fall. Such is a force of gravity.
