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The United States has imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, in a fresh escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the Hague based court.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Tuesday, saying both officials had been targeted under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year. The order allows Washington to impose sanctions on ICC officials involved in investigations or prosecutions of individuals whose governments have not accepted the court’s jurisdiction.
“Those 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, according to Reuters.
Akane, a Japanese judge who serves as president of the ICC, and Seye, a Senegalese national, are the latest court officials to face US sanctions. The ICC, established in 2002, is responsible for prosecuting genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United States, however, is not a member of the court.
Washington had already sanctioned several ICC prosecutors and judges last year. The measures were linked in part to the court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as its earlier investigation into alleged crimes involving US troops in Afghanistan.
The sanctions block any US based assets belonging to the affected officials and restrict their access to the American financial system. Given the central role of the US financial system in international banking, the restrictions can have consequences well beyond American territory.The latest sanctions have also drawn legal opposition. Three ICC judges sued Trump and his administration in June, arguing that the measures were unlawful.
On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department issued a general licence permitting transactions involving Akane to be wound down until September 17.
Rubio has previously warned that the Trump administration intends to intensify its campaign against the ICC. He said Washington would pursue a diplomatic effort aimed at convincing other countries to withdraw from the court.
The Secretary of State has also accused the ICC of posing a threat to US personnel, particularly those involved in the Trump administration’s immigration policies and military operations against boats suspected of transporting drugs.Trump, meanwhile, has maintained that the campaign is primarily aimed at protecting Netanyahu and other allies from prosecution rather than shielding himself from the court.
Although the United States has never joined the ICC, the court maintains that it can exercise jurisdiction over certain atrocities committed within the territory of member states, even where the accused person is a national of a country that is not a member. The court also operates on the principle that national courts should take responsibility for prosecuting serious international crimes where they are genuinely able and willing to do so.
