Khan, 56, was suspended last month by a key governing body of the ICC ahead of the secret ballot in which 82 of 125 members voted to remove him for “serious misconduct and a serious breach of duty”.
Sources told AFP only 13 states voted for Khan to stay in his post during the closed-door session at the United Nations headquarters in New York. A further 15 members abstained, while some did not attend the vote.
Khan will challenge “the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms”, his lawyer said, while the ICC, based in The Hague, said in a statement it “takes note” of the members’ vote.
In May 2025, Khan voluntarily stepped back from his duties to fight the allegations made by one of his female colleagues after an inquiry was launched the previous year.
The alleged victim, a Malaysian lawyer who worked as Khan’s direct assistant, gave her account of what happened in an interview last week with CNN.
The woman, who asked to be identified by her first name Sarah, described “an escalation of attempts” that resulted in physical assault.
“There is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity,” she told CNN. “What I think many people don’t understand is that Mr Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone’s boss.”
Khan, who had been in the job since 2021, categorically denies the accusations.
After the vote, Paivi Kaukoranta, head of the assembly that oversees the ICC, praised members for their “spirit of unity shown in upholding the integrity of the court”.
The process ensures the court “can discharge its critical mandate in the interests of the international community as a whole and victims of atrocity crimes the world over”, she added.