Ex-UN employee who drugged and sexually assaulted 13 women jailed for 15 years

Prosecutors say 39-year-old Karim Elkorany had ‘made sure his victims were incapable of defending themselves’

The UN headquarters building in New York City, 2022 (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

A former United Nations (UN) employee has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting to drugging and sexually assaulting at least 13 women in countries around the world.

Karim Elkorany, 39, of New Jersey, pled guilty this May to one count of assault and one count of making false statements to the FBI for drugging and sexually assaulting a journalist while working in Iraq as a UN communications specialist.

As part of a plea deal with US prosecutors, he also admitted drugging a total of 20 women and sexually assaulting at least 13 of them in a period spanning over 17 years, leading a New York judge to impose the maximum possible sentence.

"[Elkorany] made sure that his victims were incapable of defending themselves," US prosecutors said. "He made sure that his victims could not recall the rapes. He lied to his victims about the rapes, sometimes shaming them and making them feel like what happened was their fault."

Prosecutor Damian Williams added on Thursday: "We express deep gratitude to all of the victims for their bravery in coming forward and remain committed to doing all we can to bring perpetrators like Elkorany to justice."

It comes after numerous high-profile sexual abuse scandals involving UN personnel and military peacekeepers across the world, from Haiti to the Central African Republic.

According to prosecutors, Elkorany began drugging and assaulting women around 2002 and continued throughout 2007 and 2016. By that time he had begun working for the UN, first for its children's relief agency UNICEF and then for the UN itself.

In 2016, a woman known in court documents as "Victim-1" reported Elkorany to the UN after he drugged her and sexually assaulted her in Iraq. The UN investigated him, suspended him from duty, and referred him to the US government for criminal charges.

US officials said that Elkorany had shared a meal with the woman at a restaurant and drugged her drink while she was away from her table, before taking her to his apartment in his UN-marked car and raping her while she was unconscious.

“By drugging me, Elkorany ensured that only he has the full knowledge of the depth and depravity of his crime,” said the woman during his sentencing on Thursday, according to The New York Times.

"I will never know the details of what happened to me on the worst night of my life. He will always have that, and I will always have an emptiness that my mind fills with blame and shame."

Either other victims addressed the court, describing how Elkorany's actions had ruined their mental health, destroyed relationships, damaged their careers, and caused them to suffer nightmares and PTSD.

"He made sure that his victims were incapable of defending themselves," wrote prosecutors in a court document. "He made sure that his victims could not recall the rapes. He lied to his victims about the rapes, sometimes shaming them and making them feel like what happened was their fault."

Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald also said Elkorany had "gaslighted" his victims by "manipulating their memories of the events", such as telling them their blackouts were due to job-related stress or excessive drinking.

Elkorany’s lawyers had asked the judge to sentence him to only 41 months in prison, about three and a half years, arguing that he suffered from long-term mental health issues.

"I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain I’ve caused," Elkorany said before his sentencing. "My actions will follow me for the rest of my life, as they should."