JERUSALEM—The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, already facing controversy, has been forced to step aside while allegations of sexual misconduct are investigated, the court announced Friday. Karim Khan denies these allegations.

Digital inquired with the ICC and Karim Khan on Thursday about the possibility of his removal or resignation.

The court stated that Khan communicated his decision on Friday to take leave until the conclusion of an external investigation conducted by the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.

Reports indicate that women’s rights groups, who had been calling for his resignation since the allegations surfaced last year, welcomed the move. Khan had initially resisted stepping down.

Last year, an Associated Press investigation revealed that two court employees, confidantes of the alleged victim, reported the accusation in May. This occurred shortly before Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders on charges of war crimes.

Israel has been engaged in a war against Hamas since the group’s invasion on October 7, 2023, which resulted in over 1,200 deaths, including American citizens.

Eugene Kontorovich, a legal expert at the Heritage Foundation, stated that Khan’s removal is insufficient, arguing that the entire tribunal shares blame and that the scandal exposes inherent flaws within the institution.

The Associated Press reported that two co-workers reported Khan’s alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan himself wasn’t questioned at the time.

While the court’s watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court’s integrity.

Khan has faced increasing pressure on multiple fronts, including sanctions imposed by the U.S. in February regarding the Israel warrants, which are impacting various investigations at the court.

The to prosecute Netanyahu and the country’s former Defense Minister raised “questions about whether Khan was aiming to protect himself from the sexual-assault allegations. The day before announcing the warrant application, Khan abruptly canceled a trip to Israel and Gaza that he had previously said was important to make his decision.”

The Wall Street Journal published the ICC employee’s account of Khan allegedly raping and sexually assaulting her.

Lawyers for Khan from Carter-Ruck Solicitors stated that it is “categorically untrue that he has engaged in sexual misconduct of any kind.”

Khan’s lawyers added that he is “cooperating fully and transparently with the investigation by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).”

Regarding the allegation that Khan exploited the ICC to target Israeli leaders in order to protect himself, Carter-Ruck Solicitors stated that the ICC Judges’ approval of the arrest warrants demonstrates that the evidence met the required legal standard. They dismissed suggestions that the Prosecutor’s applications were linked to, or precipitated by, unrelated allegations of misconduct as totally false.

Kontorovich said about the ICC case against Israeli leaders: “This fundamentally undermines the integrity of the case, and in a normal judicial system, would lead not just to these charges being thrown out, but cast doubt on all his prior cases.”

He added that “Given that the ICC has only managed to secure final convictions against six people for atrocity crimes in its quarter-century of existence, a massive scandal of prosecutorial misconduct should be grounds for shutting down the institution, not just removing the prosecutor.”

When asked if the ICC plans to rescind the arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders, Fadi El-Abdallah, the spokesman for the ICC, told Digital that “As there is a pending request, I can’t offer comment or speculation on its outcome.”

El-Abdallah referred Digital to Khan’s media team regarding questions related to his alleged sexual misconduct and allegations he damaged the integrity of the world court.

Israel asked the ICC to withdraw the arrest warrants in early May.

Digital, Khan, published an academic essay in 2013 that suggested his own current effort to arrest Netanyahu would be a travesty of justice because the court cannot provide due process to defendants.

“Make no mistake: the problem is bigger than Khan. They’re throwing him under the bus to protect the institution and salvage their campaign against Israel. But the rot runs deep. This was never about justice, it was always about a political agenda,” Hillel Neuer, a lawyer and UN Watch Executive Director, told Digital.

A spokesperson for the United Nations stated that it does not comment on the ICC because it is an independent judicial body.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.