Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court ordered chief prosecutor Karim Khan to recuse himself from an investigation into Venezuela, citing a conflict of interest.
Khan’s sister-in-law, international criminal lawyer Venkateswari Alagendra, has been part of a team representing the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the five-judge appeals panel at the ICC says her involvement creates an issue of “bias” for the prosecutor. The British barrister, who is currently on leave from the court, stepped down temporarily pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The ICC has an ongoing investigation into violence that followed Venezuela’s 2017 election but has so far not sought any arrest warrants. Khan announced in late 2021 that he was opening the investigation after a lengthy preliminary probe and a request to investigate in 2018 from Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru.
However, the full-scale investigation was put on hold when Venezuelan authorities said they wanted to take over the case. The ICC is a court of last resort that only takes on cases when national authorities are unwilling or unable to investigate, a system known as complementarity. Khan pressed ahead with efforts to continue the court’s first investigation in Latin America. ICC judges agreed with Khan and authorized him to resume investigations in Venezuela in 2023.
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