ICC 'in limbo' as chief prosecutor's fate uncertain ahead of member states assembly

The International Criminal Court's governing body is set to meet in The Hague with uncertainty still surrounding the future of the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, and the outcome of an outsourced investigation into an alleged sexual misconduct complaint against him.

The annual session of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP), which begins on Monday, comes after the ASP's bureau had previously said it expected a United Nations investigation into Khan to be completed by the end of October.

The delay - unacknowledged publicly by the ASP bureau or the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which is conducting the probe - has left the court in a state of limbo. 

The meeting of the ASP, which is made up of representatives from 125 countries that have ratified the ICC's founding Rome Statute, is also taking place at a time of unprecedented threats to the court, prompted mostly by its investigation into Israel over alleged war crimes in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Since February, US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed financial and visa sanctions on Khan, his two deputy prosecutors and six judges, and has threatened sanctions against the court itself - described by some as a doomsday scenario.

The ICC, established in 2002, is the world's only permanent international court with the power to prosecute senior officials for international crimes. It is currently investigating a dozen situations, including Palestine, Ukraine, Darfur (Sudan), Libya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Philippines.

The court has been functioning without a chief prosecutor since May, when Khan took a leave of absence pending the outcome of the misconduct probe. Khan strenuously denies the allegations against him. 

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