British-Pakistani lawyer Karim Khan has been elected as the next chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The 123-member Hague-based court, which began work nearly 20 years ago, is responsible for judgements regarding war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

In the second round of voting, Khan who is also Queens Counsel, won against three other candidates- Carlos Castresana Fernández, from Spain, Prosecutor of the Court of Auditors of his country; Francesco Lo Voi, of Italy, Chief Prosecutor of Palermo; and Fergal Gaynor, from Ireland, Deputy International Co-Prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and Senior Counsel at the ICC.

The British lawyer won the votes of 72 out of 123 countries and will begin his nine-year term on June 16. He will be replacing Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of Ghana.

The President of the Assembly of States Parties, O-Gon Kwon congratulated Khan on his election.

In 2018, Karim was appointed as Special Adviser by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, to head a UN investigative team assisting the Iraqi Government to hold ISIL terrorists accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide.