New details emerge of sexual abuse allegations against suspended ICC chief prosecutor

“When I look back, two things stood out. There was a huge difference in how she felt: Working with Khan and before Khan.”

“She started taking her toothbrush to work because often, straight after [Khan made sexual advances], she would go to the bathroom and vomit.”

He also alleged that the victim, a Malaysian lawyer identified by the pseudonym Aisha, began feeling suicidal due to the abuse.

And she claimed to have changed her appearance – cutting her hair and getting multiple ear piercings – in an attempt to make herself less appealing to Khan, who allegedly told her “he loves long black hair”. 

Speaking about the confusion his wife felt at her boss's behaviour after an initial interaction, Malik claimed: “She told herself, ‘you’re being paranoid, your Muslim background is coming in, telling you this isn’t normal.’”

But, he claimed, she did not wish to jeopardise her dream job on the prosecutor’s team.

"The work talk would last three minutes, and then he would start,” Aisha is alleged to have told her husband. “It would always happen on a gold, crescent-shaped sofa in the apartment.”

She allegedly told him that she would try and “come up with an excuse” to leave, but feared angering Khan. Instead, he claimed, “she would just stand there like a statue” in the hope that the alleged assaults would end quickly.

“If she could bear [the alleged sexual contact] for a couple of seconds, then she could get out of there,” he claimed.

Khan stepped down from his position as chief prosecutor at the ICC in May this year, pending the outcome of a UN investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct from two women. 

The 55-year-old said he “categorically denies” all the allegations made against him, which he described as “demonstrably untrue”. Speaking through his lawyers, he claimed that he never engaged in misconduct of any kind and denies harassing or mistreating any individual, misusing his authority or engaging in any coercive or professionally inappropriate conduct.

The allegations against Khan emerged shortly after he announced his intention to seek arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

In August this year, it was announced that the families of three Israeli hostages (Eitan Mor, Omri Miran and Avinatan Or), were suing Khan, alleging that he provided support for Hamas.

The 20 million shekel ($5.83 million) lawsuit filed with the Jerusalem District Court accuses Khan of levelling false accusations against the State of Israel, as well as providing services to terrorist groups.