US vs ICC row escalates: Trump administration sanctions international court president, senior lawyer

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court president Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, in the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign against the Hague-based court.US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the sanctions were imposed under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year. Akane, a Japanese judge, heads the ICC, while Seye, a Senegalese national, is a senior trial lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has also been nominated for election as an ICC judge.“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, as quoted by Reuters.The ICC condemned the sanctions, saying they threatened the international legal order. “When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court said.The move has also put Washington at odds with European allies. Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said the Netherlands, which hosts the ICC, disapproved of the sanctions and had invited Akane to discuss the country’s continued support for the court. “International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates,” Berendsen said.The latest sanctions freeze any US assets held by Akane and Seye and effectively cut them off from the US financial system. The US Treasury also issued a general licence allowing transactions involving the two officials to be wound down through September 17.The United States has never been a member of the ICC and has long opposed its jurisdiction over US officials. The court was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Under its statute, it can prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states even when the accused is a national of a non-member country.The Trump administration has previously sanctioned several ICC prosecutors and judges over the court’s investigations and arrest warrants involving Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as its past investigation into US troops in Afghanistan.Trump has said the campaign is aimed at defending Netanyahu and others from prosecution. Rubio said last month that Washington would step up efforts to undermine the ICC, including by persuading other countries to leave the institution.Akane had warned in December that US sanctions could “rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence”.