Oh, right

The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has been on an exoneration tour, with stops including an interview with Mehdi Hasan and an appearance at the Oxford Union. Accused by a lawyer in his office of repeated sexual misconduct, which he denies, he claims that an internal review of the allegations has vindicated him but the situation is more complex than that.

It has been a year since Khan took a leave of absence while the claims against him were investigated as an internal employment matter. That absence has left the ICC under the control of his deputies, with important decisions to be taken in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and elsewhere. Yet the ICC member states, which have ultimate authority over whether Khan stays or goes, have dawdled, acting as if they had all the time in the world. And the procedure that they relied on to resolve the matter turned out to be a travesty.

Who will watch the watchers and all that. So, the International Criminal Court cannot run its own affairs with what these internationally minded folk would call justice or even law. So, why in buggery bother with the court then?

Instead of making the credibility determinations needed to resolve this differing testimony, the OIOS delivered a 150-page “he said, she said” account.

That, in turn, was handed to a panel of three judges……The matter has now gone before the 21-member executive bureau of the Assembly of States Parties……The other option would be for the bureau to make its own credibility judgments, as reportedly 15 of the 21 bureau member states seem inclined to do……Some suggest that the complainant is acting at the behest of the Israeli government or its Mossad spy agency.

Oh, of course. The incredible efficiency of the international bureaucracy is all about The Jooos. Dust from orbit, it’s the only way.