Double Down News just posted a 20 minute interview with Francesca Albanese on YouTube.
Watch it here.
Last week, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, was removed over sexual misconduct allegations. An official investigation failed to establish these allegations as fact.
Khan, with the backing of the ICC, issued an arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu and defence minister Gallant (as well as key Hamas figures). Now it appears Israel played a key role in getting Khan removed.
Of course, the US also sanctioned Khan and many others within the ICC and is now actively seeking to dismantle the court.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories and herself sanctioned by the US for her work, frames Khan’s dismissal in a new light.
She does not excuse the alleged misconduct (neither do I, to be clear) but points to the entire process and what has happened behind the scenes. Something’s not right here.
While the ICC is not a European or EU court, to me the silence of European and EU leaders is unforgivable. There’s has been virtually no response to any of the sanctions nor to the back door actions of hostile parties such as Israel and the US. There’s been no statements in defence of the ICC after the US public statements seeking to dismantle the court.
In the meantime, the breakdown of international law and institutions (while imperfect) will bring harm to us all.
True, but with 82 out of 125 voting for his removal it feels fair to say that at least some European countries voted in favour. This being closed-door is problematic in its own right but that’s another story.
My more general point is the utter failure of our leaders to defend the ICC as an institution and stand up for its people (even those without misconduct allegations). Let alone they won’t insist proper procedure is followed. On paper that may have been the case but in reality it appears to have been quite something else.
The ICC came out of the treaty of Rome, it has 125 countries as members. Most of those countries will be mostly embarrassed by Kahn’s behaviors, will be glad it is over, and will want to move on. My source at the ICC says all her colleagues are happy he is gone. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jul/16/icc-staffer-talks-publicly-about-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-chief-prosecutor-karim-khan