British human rights lawyer elected as new ICC prosecutor

 Karim Khan, 50, won on a second round of voting at the UN with support from 72 nations, 10 more than the 62 needed.

Khan, 50, who led a United Nations probe into atrocities by the ISIL (ISIS) group, won on a second round of voting at the UN in New York on Friday with support from 72 nations, 10 more than the 62 needed.

His election on the second secret ballot by the 123 parties to the Rome Statute that established the court ends a drawn-out and divisive process to replace Fatou Bensouda when her nine-year term expires in June.

Khan, who has specialised in international criminal law and international human rights law, was widely seen as the favourite to get the job. But neither he nor any of the other candidates garnered enough support to be appointed by consensus, prompting Friday’s election in the UN General Assembly Hall.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said it was the first time since the ICC started work almost 20 years ago that the 123 countries that are part of the court elected the new chief prosecutor after a candidate could not be agreed by consensus.

Although this is an independent legal position, Bays said, everything about the ICC “ends up being politically charged”.

“A number of his early decisions are bound to be controversial, whichever course he takes.”