The Trump administration has added the head of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and one of its senior lawyers to a list of sanctioned individuals.<\/p>\n
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed the widening sanctions on Tuesday as part of his campaign to \u201cdismantle\u201d the ICC.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump Administration is sanctioning ICC President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye in our unwavering mission to protect Americans from this sham of a court,\u201d Rubio wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn honor of our Declaration of Independence, Americans will never be transported beyond seas to be tried for pretend offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Akane, a Japanese judge, has served as the ICC\u2019s president since her election in March 2024. Seye is a Senegalese lawyer at the court.<\/p>\n
The sanctions freeze any assets they may have in the US and limit US-based entities from conducting transactions with them, starting on September 17.<\/p>\n
The US has sanctioned more than a dozen ICC judges and prosecutors, triggering a response from financial institutions that cuts them off from much of the international banking system.<\/p>\n
It has also imposed financial restrictions on human rights groups and figures such as United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, citing their cooperation with the ICC.<\/p>\n
In June, three ICC judges sued<\/a> the Trump administration over the sanctions, calling them an \u201carbitrary and capricious\u201d means of curtailing the court\u2019s judicial independence.<\/p>\n International legal order \u2018at risk\u2019<\/p>\n The ICC has denounced the Trump administration\u2019s efforts as a means of eroding the rule of law.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,\u201d the court said in a statement.<\/p>\n Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on X that the Netherlands, which hosts the court, disapproved of the latest US sanctions and he had invited Akane to \u201cdiscuss our continued support\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates,\u201d Berendsen wrote.<\/p>\n The Trump administration, however, has argued that the ICC overstepped its authority by opening investigations into actions committed by the US and its close ally, Israel. Neither country is a member of the court, which is based in The Hague.<\/p>\n But proponents have argued that the court has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute actions carried out in its 125 member states, even if the perpetrators fall outside its membership.<\/p>\n The court\u2019s mandate is to investigate grievous international crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n In 2020, for instance, the ICC opened an inquiry into allegations of US war crimes in Afghanistan, where it had led a 20-year war that ended in 2021. More recently, in 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants<\/a> for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes during Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n In an X post on Tuesday evening, Netanyahu applauded the US sanctions and called the ICC \u201ca kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n US hints at more measures<\/p>\n The Trump administration has also protested against investigations into US and Israeli actions.<\/p>\n In July, Rubio issued a statement calling the court an \u201cintolerable threat\u201d to the countries\u2019 sovereignty and pledging to dismantle it.<\/p>\n Several countries, including Chad<\/a> and Venezuela<\/a>, have since announced plans to withdraw from the ICC, with critics citing the US\u2019s influence as a motivating factor.<\/p>\n But in Tuesday\u2019s statement, Rubio doubled down on his criticism, hinting at more punitive measures to come.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, four human rights groups sued US President Donald Trump in a New York court over his sanctions targeting the ICC, saying the measures block victims of war crimes from pursuing justice.<\/p>\n One of the plaintiff groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW), issued a statement on Tuesday decrying the new sanctions.<\/p>\n The sanctions are \u201cjust the latest example of the Trump administration\u2019s utter contempt for international law and a naked attempt to shield American and Israeli officials implicated in serious crimes from justice\u201d, HRW\u2019s Middle East and North Africa director Balkees Jarrah said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration has added the head of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and one of its senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1157146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2740,11410,30,32,299,1234,2192,25781,837,2122,839,1477,12,285,43410,49,286,26],"class_list":["post-1157145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-africa","tag-asia-pacific","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-government","tag-icc","tag-investigation","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-middle-east","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-senegal","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117121194939957430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}