The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane of Japan as part of its campaign against the body that it accuses of being “politicized.”
In 2024, the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. Washington also slapped sanctions on ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal in the Trump administration’s latest salvo against The Hague-based court. The United States, which is not a party to the international treaty that established the ICC, has already imposed sanctions against several of the court’s officials. It is largely a response to ICC investigations targeting Israel, a US ally. “The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.
“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,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court said in a statement. Last month, Washington launched a major diplomatic offensive against the ICC, accusing it of “threatening” Americans and calling on partners to withdraw from the body a move already announced by Chad and Venezuela, which has aligned with the United States since the capture and ouster of leader Nicolas Maduro. We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty,” Rubio’s statement said.
