Member states of the International Criminal Court have elected British human rights lawyer Karim Khan to a nine-year term as the tribunal’s next chief prosecutor.
After two rounds of voting Friday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Khan beat out three other candidates to become The Hague-based court’s third prosecutor. The leader after the first round of votes, Khan secured 72 of 123 votes cast in the second round. A simple majority of 62 votes was needed to prevail.
He beat out Spain’s Carlos Castresana Fernandez, Fergal Gaynor of Ireland and Francesco Lo Voi of Italy.
Khan has represented governments, heads of state, political leaders, military officers and victims before all the international criminal courts.
In 2018, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed him as special adviser to head up a new team investigating atrocity crimes allegedly committed by Islamic State fighters in Iraq, including against minority Yazidis.
Khan will take over from Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on June 16, when her nine-year term ends
Read more at https://www.voanews.com/usa/british-human-rights-lawyer-be-next-icc-chief-prosecutor.
