Return to Transcripts main page

The Amanpour Hour

Interview With Accuser Of ICC's Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan Of Sexual Misconduct And ICC Staff Member, Sarah; Interview With Accuser Of ICC's Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of Sexual Misconduct, Patricia; Interview With Lead Counsel For Karim Khan, Sareta Ashraph. Aired 11a- 12p ET

Aired July 18, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:36]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR. Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Sharing her story. The woman who accuses the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, of sexual misconduct, goes public after a lengthy U.N. investigation.

Khan denies all allegations, and the ICC member states are preparing to vote on his fate.

Now, for the first time, his accuser gives me her account of what happened and how it's impacted her, and that these allegations have nothing to do with the ICC arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and defense minister.

Then we hear from a second accuser. She says Khan sexually harassed her in 2009. He denies that, too.

We will also hear from Karim Khan's lead counsel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

Today we have a world exclusive and a very difficult topic. The International Criminal Court, whose mission is global justice and accountability, faces serious allegations against its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. And his accuser sits down with us to tell her side of the story for the very first time publicly.

For months, the U.N.'s oversight office, known as the OIOS, has investigated claims by this employee at the ICC that Khan subjected her to non-consensual sexual acts. We have obtained a copy of that report, which states that they, quote, "found evidence showing a factual basis to her claims against Mr. Khan".

Khan denies all the allegations and says it's the finding of a later judgment, one from a three-judge panel that really matters. That panel found the report doesn't disprove the allegations of misconduct, but says the evidence does not meet the legal threshold of beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to "The New York Times", Following this, an executive body made up of 21 member states reached its conclusion and suspended Karim Khan from his duties as chief prosecutor.

And next Friday, all 125 members of the ICC states will vote on whether Khan should be dismissed. It is a moment of crisis for the court.

In May 2024, Khan broke the news on this program that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israels prime minister and defense minister for crimes committed over the war in Gaza, as well as for Hamas officials for their actions on and after October 7th.

The reaction from the United States and Israel was furious and members of the court have since been subjected to sanctions and restrictions by the U.S., a pressure campaign that is ongoing.

Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to dismantle the ICC, quote, "brick by brick".

It was during this pressure campaign that allegations of sexual misconduct against Khan first emerged.

But crucially, those allegations made by the woman at the heart of this story are unconnected to the ICC's arrest warrants for top Israeli officials. That's what the ICC report found.

So many have tried to conflate the two. Some supporters of Khan going so far as to falsely accuse her of working at Israel's behest, even being a Mossad agent attempting to discredit him and his war crimes case. Karim Khan has spoken publicly in recent weeks in interviews and other addresses denying the allegations.

Today we hear from the woman accusing him. Her name is Sarah. She's asked us not to broadcast her last name. She's worked at the ICC since 2017 and is still employed there.

She says she never wanted to be in this position. It is still difficult for her to talk about it.

And now we want to warn you that the accusations you hear may be especially triggering for survivors of sexual assault. Here is our interview.

[11:04:43]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Sarah, thank you for being here. Can I just start at the beginning? I just would like you to tell me a

little bit about how you came to international law, this field, what motivated you?

SARAH, ACCUSES ICC'S KARIM KHAN OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT, WHICH HE DENIES AND ICC STAFF MEMBER: First of all, I'm from Malaysia. I'm Malayan Muslim. And when I was 11, my mom and I moved to Singapore, and I attended a school called United World College.

And actually, the year that I moved to Singapore was 1998, when the Rome Statute, which is kind of the founding document of the International Criminal Court, was signed.

And the International Criminal Court had just been established. And it was everything that appealed to me.

AMANPOUR: When did you first join?

SARAH: 2017, end of 2017, as an intern. And I joined Fatou Bensouda's immediate office.

AMANPOUR: She was the chief prosecutor then?

SARAH: That's correct. Yes.

AMANPOUR: So, after that period of time with Fatou Bensouda, then Karim Khan takes over when her term is over.

SARAH: Correct.

AMANPOUR: What was your first impressions of him because you were in his office, in that floor.

SARAH: I was still in the legal advisory section. Actually, I fully supported his election as prosecutor.

AMANPOUR: What was the actual job? What did it entail?

SARAH: The direct special assistant role was to essentially perform any task that Mr. Khan needed. And during my interviews, I was asked repeatedly, are you willing to go on all missions with Mr. Khan? They highlighted the fact that, you know, you have a child, would that be something that's still possible?

It would be preparing his briefing notes. It would -- I would be one of four people in his immediate team. And so, essentially, anything that Mr. Khan needed, we would be executing.

AMANPOUR: And you were amenable to that? You said yes?

SARAH: Yes. Yes.

AMANPOUR: So, now come the beginnings of the allegations. According to the reports that we have obtained, you allege that Mr. Khan became, quote, "more poi, more poi and aggressive," touching your breasts, genital area, pulling you towards his crotch, eventually digitally and genitally penetrating you".

These are all allegations that he denies. Can you tell me about some of that?

SARAH: First of all, I can't speak about what I told the OIOS investigators. And I'm not going to comment on the report itself. But I can speak to my own experiences.

The first thing that I would have to say is that this did not happen in isolation. This was an environment where we were always on the move. There was always a crisis because that is what happens at the court, you have to deal with multiple things. And it's also very emotional work that you're doing.

Mr. Khan himself, in my experience, was a very reactive individual. And he could go from being fine and collaborative, to angry, for example, at criticism in social media. And that would be this rage.

And so, you kind of always felt like the ground was shifting under you. And there was a -- I have no other way to describe it, but an escalation of attempts.

And so, that escalation was happening in this environment, where you are trying desperately to almost emotionally regulate Mr. Khan. And as I would describe it, the point of the physical nature of it.

But it didn't start that way. Because it was kind of like encroachments on the boundaries slowly, not just physically, but emotionally as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:09:48]

AMANPOUR: We'll have more of that exclusive interview after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

We now continue my conversation with Sarah, the woman who accuses the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, of sexual misconduct and harassment, allegations that he denies.

[11:14:48]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Can I just read some of what -- I know you can't comment on the actual report, but we've seen the actual report.

He maintains that he never engaged in any conduct with you that could be construed as inappropriate, unwelcome or abusive. He also said that you did not express in any fashion that you found any conduct or interaction unwelcome or inappropriate. And recently you've seen and many people have seen he did a public interview with Mehdi Hasan on Zeteo, in which he categorically denied having any kind of relationship with you.

I know you can't talk about the report. But although -- what do you say to those denials?

SARAH: There's many ways in which I can answer this. The first thing that I would say is that there is no way for something to be consensual when you have such a power disparity.

What I think many people don't understand is that Mr. Khan was not just my boss, he was everyone's bosses. He is the boss of all bosses. And it cannot be consensual.

I will give you two examples. One is there was a point in time when I said to Mr. Khan that if this continued, I was afraid that I might do something to myself.

AMANPOUR: So, you had suicidal thoughts?

SARAH: I never used that word internally, but I just couldn't do it anymore. And Mr. Khan understood fully. He was actually very kind in that moment. And he said, I would never want you to harm yourself. And he stopped. I would say about two or three weeks, but that was worse. Because prior to that, it was like being a zombie or being in a fog.

But in those two or three weeks, I was really hopeful, because he wasn't retaliating against me. The work was happening. And so, I thought it was done. And that's all I ever wanted, for it just to be finished.

And then it started again. And so, the crash was even worse.

The second instance, when we talk about consent, we don't need a series of incidences. And we know that.

So, let's take one moment. One of my experiences happened in Colombia.

AMANPOUR: On a mission to Venezuela and Colombia at that time.

SARAH: Correct. And Mr. Khan's hotel room was on the floor above mine, right at the end of a hallway. And usually, we sort of cordon off or block off that section for his security and safety.

My room was on the floor beneath his, and I had a staff member on either side. We had arrived and Mr. Khan called me and said, there's a text message I need you to have a look at.

And I thought this was -- because Mr. Khan always used the guise of work to initiate interactions. And so, very stupidly, I said, I think I'm nauseous from the altitude, you know, Bogota is above sea level. And I said, could we have a look at this over dinner? Because we were meeting with an official delegate. And he said, it's ok, I'll come down to your hotel room. And in that split second, I thought between the two bad options, this was the better option because he likely wouldn't try anything knowing that there were two staff members on either side of my room.

And I remember distinctly that I stood very close to the door of my hotel room. He showed me the text message. And I said, ok, well, I can't do anything with this. Like, you have to send it to me for me to log it. And he sent it.

And then he asked me, are you going to take a nap now? I said, Yes, maybe we can talk later. And he said, ok, I'll take a nap as well with you.

And I froze. And I remember I was wearing black leggings and a black top. And I lay on the edge of the bed, facing the wall, sort of in like a fetal position. And there is no explanation for this.

[11:19:46]

SARAH: But I did what sounds ridiculous, but was exactly what I did during a traumatic event when I was a child. And I pretended to be asleep. Nobody goes to sleep that quickly, unless I guess you're on drugs, or you've had a lot of alcohol.

And I felt Mr. Khan sort of scooch over in the bed. And he started to put his hand down my leggings to grope me, to put his tongue in my ear. And I didn't move an inch even when, I remember, I think his fingernail must have caught my skin. I didn't flinch, nothing. I just was still.

Now, when you take that one incident alone, if you believe someone to be asleep, that is not consent. You cannot consent to that.

AMANPOUR: Can I point some things out then, in this idea of did he think it was consensual? You've explained exactly why that couldn't be possible from your point of view, of course.

And afterwards, according to the report, he would ask you whether you were comfortable or uncomfortable with anything he was doing. In other words, after you had these experiences that you allege, he would then say, of course, you'd -- I'm paraphrasing, you'd tell me if you're uncomfortable. Is that correct?

SARAH: He would sometimes mention that, or ask me that question. But if you know Mr. Khan, he's not expecting a response from you. Mr. Khan does what he wants. And I, again, go back to that moment where I clearly told him, if this continues, I might harm myself.

AMANPOUR: Khan, according to the report, said that you demonstrated constant insistence sometimes to go on missions, which at least one staffer agreed with.

SARAH: First of all, Mr. Khan is the boss. No staff member gets to decide if they go on mission or not. That's not up to us.

AMANPOUR: So, that -- what you're telling me is that there's a very strict and clear hierarchy. And the word "insist" you disagree with?

SARAH: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: Ok.

Let me ask you about this, which is a very serious allegation. One of the people who spoke to the report, as far as I've seen, said that they had asked you after you told them about what happened in Venezuela, where he directly asked you whether he had raped you. And according to the report, you didn't answer but looked down, sighed and shrugged.

SARAH: Throughout everything that has happened, I haven't placed a label on anything. One, because I am not a lawyer in this. Even though that's my profession. It's not my place to label anything.

What I've tried to do is to stick to the details. And to the best of my recollection, recollect them and present it to the people who are meant to be decision makers.

The second part is a little bit more personal. If I would put a label, whatever that label is, I'm not sure how I can get through the day.

And I have had to play multiple roles in this. And I'm also a mom. So, I have to function. So, it has been easier for me to not focus on that and just describe the events as they happen. And I also think that it's just more accurate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Let's take another break and then we'll continue our exclusive conversation.

[11:24:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Now, we continue my exclusive interview with Sarah, who accuses the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, of sexual misconduct and harassment while she was working for him.

In this portion, we discussed Mr. Khan's denials of any wrongdoing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: This is Mr. Khan, according to report, denies the allegations, told investigators that the presence of his security detail --

SARAH: Yes.

AMANPOUR: -- would have made attempts to go to her hotel room, quote, "virtually impossible". SARAH: Now, the close protection officers, as we call them, or security detail, are there specifically to protect and keep Mr. Khan safe. They are not to restrict or limit his movements or Mr. Khan's team.

[11:29:50]

SARAH: And so, whether we're talking about entering Mr. Khan's hotel room or Mr. Khan coming to any of our rooms, that is not for them to determine.

The four individuals that I mentioned, myself included, part of his immediate team regularly went to Mr. Khan's hotel room, whether one of us, several of us, and Mr. Khan could certainly come to any of our hotel rooms.

AMANPOUR: Very soon after your allegations started to come out, when the press started to hear that there were allegations against Karim Khan, that was later in 2024, rumors started to swirl that you might be a Mossad agent.

According to this report, even some inside the ICC found the timing of the allegations suspicious. You know, what's your response to that? Well, first of all, are you a Mossad agent?

SARAH: No. And if I would be one, I would say I was terrible at it. But no. To work at the court, you have to undergo multiple security clearances.

And because of where I worked in the immediate office, both under former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and under Mr. Khan, I had to undergo the highest level of security clearance.

Second of all, if ever there was even a hint of suspicion that I was a state agent of any kind, I would have been dismissed. Why did my allegations become known to Mr. Khan, and I was able to continue in my role and job, and I continue to be a staff member of the court? That's a huge security risk, if true.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And we'll have more of this exclusive conversation after the break.

[11:31:54]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Now, the final part of my exclusive interview with Sarah who accuses the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, of sexual misconduct and harassment. He denies the allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: What is your future at the ICC or wherever?

SARAH: I don't know what my future is. But I know that my story does not change based on the outcome of the vote. And I thought about it long and hard, and I went back and forth for days about what the right thing is to do.

And sitting here, I'm still not sure if this is the right thing to do. And even in terms of timing, if I decided to go ahead and I did it after the vote, and Mr. Khan is not removed as prosecutor, people would say, she's being vindictive, she's unhappy with it. So, you know, she's doing this.

If I did it before, they would say she's trying to influence the vote. And if I didn't do it at all, I will forever be known as a possible state agent.

But larger than that, I think the main factor for me is during the last few years, Mr. Khan has had a name, a reputation, and a title. And I have been known as VO1 and anonymized. And that is meant to protect a victim who comes forward or a complainant.

But that also has had the opposite effect in that it has allowed me to be -- to be crafted in whatever way suits another person. And there's been this caricature drawn -- a state agent, a gold digger, crazy, emotional, a compulsive liar.

And there are thousands of women who will never have the opportunity to sit with you. And this is not unique to my circumstances. This happens every day.

And for me, what I want out of this is, at the very least, for people to consider the various ways in which we deflect from legitimate allegations, the ways in which we question the credibility of someone, even when there's nothing to it. And we give it -- we give it an engine to drive.

[11:39:46]

AMANPOUR: How do you feel today about all of this?

SARAH: Incredibly nervous. Humiliated. I expect a lot of backlash once this goes public. It's not an easy thing to do. But I also think it's very important.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you about the bigger issue of the court. The investigation, obviously, is long and drawn out. It's been criticized on all sorts of grounds.

Even Kenneth Roth, the former head of Human Rights Watch, has said publicly the procedure that everything has taken has been, quote, "a travesty".

How do you view it? How do you think it's impacted the reputation of the ICC, which was designed, as you said, to bring justice to the world and hold the worst criminals accountable? SARAH: Long before I joined the court, there has always been pressures on the court, even during Prosecutor Bensouda's time. And there will always be criticisms.

But I don't believe that the legitimacy of the court should stand on the reputation of any one man.

This is not a spectacle. This is not Hollywood. At the end of the day, this is a complaint. And what the court and other institutions do with such a complaint adds to its legitimacy. It doesn't take away from it. It shows that they are willing to take possible misconduct seriously.

I believe that the court will, of course, continue to face pressures going forward. But I also believe that the court will continue to function. And we also have to recognize that no institution in this world is perfect. The fact that it continues to try to improve itself will only contribute to its strength going forward.

AMANPOUR: Sarah, thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Coming up, we hear from a second accuser. She says Khan engaged in nonconsensual sexual activity with her in 2009 when she worked for him, another charge that he denies. And we get response from Karim Khan's legal counsel.

[11:42:27]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Now, when the allegations against the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, first became publicly known, a second accuser then also came forward. She spoke to "The Guardian" newspaper anonymously and to U.N. investigators about unwanted sexual advances that she says she was subjected to by Khan in 2009. We agreed not to disclose her identity, and CNN can't independently corroborate her claims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICIA, ACCUSES ICC'S KARIM KHAN OF PAST SEXUAL MISCONDUCT, WHICH HE DENIES: The first type of behavior began when my team and I were asked to work at his house. We began working at his house. And that began a pattern of my going to his house.

And every time I went to his house, I felt I needed to fortify myself because without fail, every time I was there, it was a constant onslaught of him coming on to me, groping me, grabbing me, kissing my face, touching my hair, trying to get me to engage in intimate activity with him, which I constantly had to bat off.

And I felt I had to do it in a way that didn't antagonize him too much.

In the office, on one occasion, I was sitting at my desk and he stood behind me, groping my breasts.

AMANPOUR: Can I just respond with the answers to the allegations by Karim Khan, his lawyers. And you also spoke anonymously to "The Guardian" newspaper last year, detailing some of what you've just told me.

They say it's wholly untrue that he's engaged in sexual misconduct of any kind, that he categorically denies having harassed or mistreated any individual or having misused his position or authority or engaged in any conduct that could be interpreted as coercive, exploitative or professionally inappropriate.

PATRICIA: The reason I came forward after so many years is because at the time it happened to me, I felt very isolated.

[11:49:43]

PATRICIA: And as many people do under these circumstances, I felt that perhaps I was the only person who had experienced these behaviors.

When, after a decade, I read "The Guardian" article with the other allegations, my heart sank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now, of course, we asked Karim Khan for an interview. His legal team said it wouldn't be appropriate at this time, but they offered us the option of speaking to his lead counsel, Sareta Ashraph.

So here's that part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Sareta Ashraph, welcome to the program.

We should note that you have not seen the interviews in question, but that we did send you detailed lists of allegations that both women made in advance of this interview. And I'm specifically going to ask you to address some of the allegations.

Victim number one, she alleges an escalating pattern of behavior, including nonconsensual groping and penetration, including while she pretended to be asleep; to all intents and purposes, she says she was asleep.

She also said that due to the power differential between her and her boss, Mr. Khan, any sexual relationship could not have been consensual. What is your response to this?

SARITA ASHRAPH, LEAD COUNSEL FOR KARIM KHAN:: These -- first of all, we would like to say that these are serious allegations, and they needed to be taken seriously, investigated seriously, and undergo a serious judicial review, and that is what has happened.

The allegations that are presented in your program are not new allegations. They are allegations which form part of a much larger body of evidence.

Mr. Khan has denied and continues to deny them in their entirety, any form of sexual contact relationship, consensual or nonconsensual with the complainant.

In this particular case, I also want to emphasize, as you said at the beginning, that the OIS report had made factual findings and this differs from the panel of judges.

One thing I want to make really clear to your viewers is that the OIS report does not have the same standing as the panel of judges.

OIOS spent 13 months investigating this case. They interviewed over 30 witnesses. They collected over 5,600 pages of material, including telephone records and messages records. And from that, they produced a large number of conflicting narratives.

You're looking at a very small sliver of evidence against a much larger body of evidence, all of which the judges took into account, and the judges are the ones who applied the standard of proof before reaching a finding that the evidence did not establish.

The findings, the facts found by OIS, did not establish misconduct or breach of duty on the part of Mr. Khan.

AMANPOUR: I would like to ask you about this. In the OIOS report, there's testimony from a witness that she said she had thoughts of harming herself and that she had told this to Mr. Khan. What is your response to that? fap ASHRAPH: With regard to that allegation, no medical evidence was presented to OIOS. Mr. Khan does not recollect ever being informed of that.

But certainly, if there were fragilities, if there were mental health concerns or vulnerabilities of particular individuals, that may have been the case.

We obviously can't speak to someone's mental health, but certainly that did not result from any conduct on the part of Mr. Khan.

AMANPOUR: What about the second accuser, who in public has been called in another media operation, Patricia, alleging that approximately 16 years ago, when she was an intern for Mr. Khan, that he subjected her to sexual harassment, she says, constantly coming on to her, trying to get her to engage in intimate activity.

ASHRAPH: Again, these are not new allegations. These are allegations which form part of the investigation that OIOS did. Mr. Khan denies them in their entirety.

In the case of this particular individual, she kept in contact with Mr. Khan for many years after she exited the world of international criminal law with a very positive relationship for a very long time.

So, we deny these allegations in their entirety, but they're also not new allegations. They're allegations which have formed part of the evidential record and which were seen alongside the evidence of over 30 other witnesses, as well as the evidence of Mr. Khan himself.

The evidential -- complete evidential picture paints a far different picture than has been presented here today.

And so, we are obviously concerned at the timing of this coming out. It does place pressure in an already -- an environment which has become more political than legal.

The decision to come on and present one part of a very much larger overall picture risks putting a thumb on the scales of the 24th of July vote.

That's something that we're very concerned about.

[11:54:43]

ASHRAPH: We would hope that your viewers would understand and at least recognize that there is a huge host of evidence and information that the judges had access to, that we hope that the Bureau and ASP members will access, that simply the wider public does not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And you can see extended versions of all these interviews with Karim Khan's legal counsel and his accusers, Patricia and Sarah, on our Web site.

More on the story after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:59:54]

AMANPOUR: And finally, this program has raised some very difficult topics. If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues that we've covered in this show and needs help, you can call the U.S. sexual assault hotline 24/7 at 1-800-6564673, provided by Rain. And internationally, a worldwide list of directories is provided by U.N. women on Lila.help.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and see you next time.