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US announces new sanctions on top ICC figures
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The U.S. imposed sanctions on Tuesday on the International Criminal Court's president and a senior trial lawyer at the court, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
The move is the latest escalation in the Trump administration's campaign against The Hague-based court, which was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, Reuters reported.
The U.S. is not a member of the court.
Rubio said in a statement that he was imposing sanctions on Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge who is president of the ICC, and Abdoulaye Seye, a senior trial lawyer and a Senegalese national, under a Trump executive order last year authorizing sanctions against the court.
"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction," Rubio said.
The ICC condemned the move, saying in a statement that the measures undermine the rule of law.
"When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk," the ICC said.
Seye is a senior trial lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has been nominated for election as an ICC judge.
The U.S. effort has put it at odds with allies in Europe.
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on X that the Netherlands, which hosts the court, disapproved of the latest U.S. sanctions and he had invited Akane to "discuss our continued support."
"International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates," Berendsen wrote.
Top ICC judge Akane warned in December that the U.S. sanctions would "rapidly undermine the court's operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence".
The U.S. imposed targeted sanctions last year on several ICC officials, including prosecutors and judges, citing the ICC's arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a past probe into U.S. troops in Afghanistan.