Qatar ICC Intelligence Operation Targets ICC Chief Prosecutor Accuser

A high-pro­file Qatari intel­li­gence oper­a­tion has alleged­ly tar­get­ed the woman who accused Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court chief pros­e­cu­tor Karim Khan of sex­u­al mis­con­duct. On 6 Novem­ber 2025, The Guardian report­ed that pri­vate British intel­li­gence firms had gath­ered sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion about Khan’s alleged vic­tim on behalf of the Qatari gov­ern­ment. The covert oper­a­tion sought to dis­cred­it the woman and estab­lish poten­tial con­nec­tions to Israel, though no such links were uncov­ered. The arti­cle begins:

A high-lev­el Qatari gov­ern­ment office report­ed­ly paid a pri­vate intel­li­gence firm to uncov­er infor­ma­tion that would dis­cred­it a woman who accused Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court chief pros­e­cu­tor Karim Khan of sex­u­al abuse. The Lon­don-based High­gate firm was also tasked with link­ing the woman to Israel, although no such infor­ma­tion was uncov­ered, the Guardian report­ed. Khan issued arrest war­rants against Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu and for­mer defense min­is­ter Yoav Gal­lant last year. High­gate and a small­er firm called Eli­cius Intel­li­gence did obtain sig­nif­i­cant pri­vate infor­ma­tion about Khan’s alleged vic­tim and her fam­i­ly, the Guardian said. Khan stepped aside in May pend­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion into alleged sex­u­al mis­con­duct, which he has cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly denied. A Unit­ed Nations inves­ti­ga­tion is under­way, and Khan has since been accused of retal­i­at­ing against staff who sup­port­ed his accuser, includ­ing demot­ing sev­er­al peo­ple he felt were crit­i­cal of him.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov/06/qatar-linked-intelligence-operation-targeted-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-alleged-victim

Key Points

• Lon­don-based High­gate firm and Eli­cius Intel­li­gence obtained pass­port details, pass­words, and pri­vate email address­es of Khan’s alleged vic­tim and her fam­i­ly members.

• The oper­a­tion specif­i­cal­ly attempt­ed to estab­lish con­nec­tions between the woman and Israel but found no evi­dence sup­port­ing such links.

• Qatar’s Inter­na­tion­al Media Office denied the alle­ga­tions, call­ing them part of a coor­di­nat­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign against Qatar’s Gaza medi­a­tion role.

• Karim Khan stepped aside in May 2025 pend­ing a UN inves­ti­ga­tion into sex­u­al mis­con­duct alle­ga­tions, which he has cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly denied.

How Qatar Built Western Influence: Lobbying Networks, Political Bribery, and Intelligence Gathering

Qatar has deployed exten­sive influ­ence oper­a­tions across West­ern democ­ra­cies through lob­by­ing, media manip­u­la­tion, intel­li­gence gath­er­ing, and polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion net­works. The coun­try spent near­ly $250 mil­lion on 88 FARA-reg­is­tered lob­by­ing and pub­lic rela­tions firms since 2016, secur­ing more in-per­son meet­ings with US polit­i­cal con­tacts than any oth­er for­eign nation between 2021 and 2025. Qatar’s agents report­ed 627 in-per­son meet­ings dur­ing this peri­od, hir­ing for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress and top con­gres­sion­al aides to advance Doha’s strate­gic inter­ests. The influ­ence oper­a­tions inten­si­fied after Sau­di Ara­bia and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates block­ad­ed Qatar in 2017, prompt­ing vig­or­ous coun­ter­at­tack efforts in Wash­ing­ton to com­bat anti-Qatar lobbying.

Qatar’s Euro­pean influ­ence oper­a­tions have involved both legal lob­by­ing and crim­i­nal cor­rup­tion schemes. The Qatar­gate scan­dal revealed a cor­rup­tion net­work that bribed Euro­pean Par­lia­ment offi­cials to influ­ence leg­isla­tive deci­sions, improve Qatar’s inter­na­tion­al image, and secure favor­able out­comes dur­ing the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Bel­gian author­i­ties seized €1.5 mil­lion in cash and charged mul­ti­ple Euro­pean Par­lia­ment mem­bers, includ­ing Greek Vice Pres­i­dent Eva Kaili, with cor­rup­tion, mon­ey laun­der­ing, and orga­nized crime. Qatar simul­ta­ne­ous­ly financed Mus­lim Broth­er­hood expan­sion across Europe through Qatar Char­i­ty and state-run orga­ni­za­tions, chan­nel­ing €72 mil­lion to Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed mosques, Islam­ic cen­ters, and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions in sev­en Euro­pean coun­tries. French inves­tiga­tive report­ing doc­u­ment­ed 140 projects direct­ly fund­ed by Qatar over eight years, with 90% of activ­i­ties linked to Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed orga­ni­za­tions pro­mot­ing Islamist ideology.

The gath­er­ing of sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion about the woman who accused Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court pros­e­cu­tor Karim Khan of sex­u­al mis­con­duct mir­rors Qatar’s ear­li­er deploy­ment of ex-CIA offi­cers through Glob­al Risk Advi­sors to con­duct sur­veil­lance dur­ing the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Qatar’s mul­ti­fac­eted influ­ence appa­ra­tus com­bines aggres­sive lob­by­ing expen­di­tures, covert intel­li­gence oper­a­tions, and media part­ner­ships to shape West­ern pol­i­cy out­comes and pro­tect Doha’s reputation.

Exter­nal references:

• Soft Pow­er, Hard Influ­ence: How Qatar Became a Giant in Wash­ing­ton — Quin­cy Institute
• Qatar cor­rup­tion scan­dal at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment — Wikipedia
• Qatar report­ed­ly paid intel firm to dis­cred­it woman accus­ing ICC pros­e­cu­tor of abuse — Times of Israel

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) uti­lizes AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing the gen­er­a­tion of sum­maries for news items, intro­duc­tions, key points, and, often, the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, all images are gen­er­at­ed using AI and are intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.