International Criminal Court (ICC) members voted Friday to select British human rights attorney and Queen’s Counsel Karim Khan since the court’s next prosecutor, carrying more than Fatou Bensouda.
The vote, which happened during the next resumed first session of the Meeting of States Parties, saw Khan win service from 72 countries, exceeding the 62 votes required to secure nearly all Khan prevailed over three other candidates vie for the article: Carlos Castresana Fernández from Spain, Francesco Lo Voi out of Italy and Fergal Gaynor from Ireland.
During Khan’s law profession spanning 28 decades, he’s represented clients facing international or hybrid foreign courts, most notably as a legal adviser in the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), and as lead counsel in the first instance before the Outstanding Courts of the Chambers of Cambodia (the Khmer Rouge Tribunal). He’s presently acting as helper secretary-general of the UN, was named as the first specific adviser and head of their UN Investigative Team to Boost Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD).
In a tweet published on Sunday,” Khan thanked member countries to get the confidence and trust placed in him and stated he looked forward to”work[ing] with stakeholders to exploit our collective attempts to serve the reason behind justice.”
