US sanctions ICC president, senior trial lawyer in latest attack on court

Highlights:

• Rubio said ICC pursued cases against officials from governments outside its jurisdiction
• Three ICC judges sued Trump administration in June, arguing that sanctions were unlawful
• Move extends Trump's broader campaign against The Hague-based war crimes tribunal

The US 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 The Hague-based court, which was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The US 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 authorising 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 US 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 US 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 US sanctions would "rapidly undermine the court's operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardise its very existence".

The US 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 US troops in Afghanistan.

The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system, with which almost all internationally operating banks have close ties.

The US Treasury Department also issued a general licence on Tuesday authorising the wind-down of transactions involving Akane and Seye through 17 September.

'Defending' Netanyahu

Three ICC judges sued Trump and his administration in June over the sanctions, arguing the measures were unlawful.

Advocacy groups, in two separate lawsuits, have said that the US campaign infringes on the constitutional rights of organisations working with the court to seek justice for atrocities around the world.

Rubio said last month that the administration would step up efforts to undermine the ICC, including a diplomatic campaign aimed at persuading other countries to quit the institution, a call that at least five countries have already heeded.

Rubio argued that the court posed a threat to US personnel carrying out US President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies or strikes on boats accused of carrying drugs, as well as other US service members.

Trump has said the campaign was aimed at defending Netanyahu and others from prosecution, rather than Trump himself.

The US has never been a member of the court. The ICC asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself.

However, the ICC statute also gives the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.