| Year of birth | 1970 |
| Year of call | 1992 |
| Inn | Lincoln’s Inn |
| Circuit | South Eastern |
| Qualifications | LLB (Hons), A.K.C., (King’s College, London), Dip.Int.Rel (Nice), Advanced Diploma, International Human Rights (Abo Akademi, Turku, Finland), D Phil (candidate), Wolfson College, University of Oxford. |
| Full CV |
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Karim is a member of 2 Hare Court, Temple, London and specialises in all areas of Public international law, international criminal and international human rights law where he acts for states and individuals. He has previously worked as a Senior Crown Prosecutor and at the Law Commission of England & Wales. From 1997-2000 he was a Legal Advisor in the Office of the Prosecutor in the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR). In 2001 Karim was instructed as defence counsel before the Special courts in East Timor. In 2003 he was appointed defence counsel in the ICTY case of Prosecutor v Limaj (acquitted on all counts Nov 2005, Prosecution appeal against acquittal dismissed). In 2004 the Registry of the ICTY also appointed him Independent counsel to the Former Chief of the Bosnia armed forces in the case of Prosecutor v (General) Sefer Halilovic. (Halilovic Appeal to President of ICTY allowed).
Karim has also provided legal advice in the ICJ case of Liberia v Sierra Leone (concerning the arrest warrant against Charles Taylor.) He also acted as defence counsel in the Case of Prosecutor v Alex Brima before the Special Court of Sierra Leone. In 2005 he was offered the post of international legal advisor to the Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. (IST). Between April 2006 – June 2007 he was Lead Defence counsel in Prosecutor v Charles Ghankay Taylor (Former President of Liberia) before the SCSL.
He is currently instructed Defence counsel at trial in Prosecutor v Prlic et al (for accused Bruno Stojic) in the ICTY. In May 2008, he was also instructed to represent the Minister of Culture of Kosova (Prosecutor v Haraqija) charged with contempt before the ICTY in relation to allegations of witness intimidation. In November 2008 he was appointed co-lead counsel in one of the first cases before the International Criminal Court, Prosecutor v Jean Pierra Bemba Gombo (Former Vice-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo for crimes allegedly committed in the Central African Republic.). In December 2008 he was appointed lead counsel to Florence Hartmann the Former Le Monde journalist and Former Chief spokesperson to Carla del Ponte, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY and ICTR. Ms Hartmann is the first staff member of the ICTY or ICTR charged with contempt of court. In 2009 he was instructed as lead counsel to the largest group of civil parties in the first case before the Extraordinary Courts of the Chambers of Cambodia (Prosecutor v Kaing Geuk Eav, alias Duch). Most recently, in March 2009 he was appointed as counsel to one of the rebel leaders being investigated by the ICC in relation to the situation in Darfur, Sudan.
Karim has lectured and taught extensively throughout the world including at the University of Tsinghua, China; University of Florence, Italy; University of Sarajevo, University of Utrecht; TMC Asser Institute, Den Haag, Netherlands; King’s College, University of London; at Sandhurst Military Academy, UK; the Advanced Officers Course of the Joint Service Command and Staff College, Watchfield, UK (for past 6 years) and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (workshop for the Judges of the ECCC) and Beirut, Syria (Bar Council of England & Wales – Beirut Bar Association).
APPOINTMENTS & AWARDS
Senior Research Fellow, King’s College, London (1999-2002); member of the CBA’s working group on the ICC Act 2001; past member of international justice sub-committee of the IRC of the Bar Council; member of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Pro Bono Human Rights Panel; included on Attorney-General’s panel of Prosecution Advocates (2001-2004). Awarded the 1999 John D & Catherine MacArthur Foundation Fellowship on International Peace and Security; Alexander Maxwell Law Scholarship Trust Award 2001. Member of Disciplinary Council of the Association of Defence Counsel of the ICTY (ADC). Chair, Amicus Committee, of the Association of Defence Counsel of the ICTY (ADC). Included on Defence counsel list, ICC, ICTY, ICTR, SCSL and ECCC.
MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
Co-Author of Archbold International Criminal Courts (Sweet & Maxwell, 1st ed 2003; 2nd ed 2005, 3rd ed 2009 (forthcoming). Contributor to Human Rights Practice (Sweet & Maxwell); Contributing Author to A Commentary to the Rome Statute on the ICC (Baden-Baden) 2000; 2nd ed 2008: Co-Editor of the International Criminal Law Reports (ICLR) (Cameron May). Co-Editor: Principles of Evidence in International Criminal Law, (Cameron May) (forthcoming 2009). Co-Author, “Enlargement and human rights law, norms and realities" in Security Dimension to EU enlargement, (Manchester University Press, Shepherd and Brown ed.). (2007)
Notable Cases