Zürcher Nachrichten - ICC says US sanctions 'flagrant attack' on court independence

The US imposed sanctions on Akane of Japan and ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal on Tuesday, as part of Washington's campaign against what it calls a "corrupt and fatally politicised" body.

"These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution," the court, based in The Hague, said in a statement.

"Such measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff... undermine the rule of law," added the court.

Washington's latest move follows sanctions it imposed on several ICC officials, largely in response to the court's investigations involving Israel, a US ally.

Japan also objected to the sanctions, saying the country has "consistently supported the ICC... in its efforts to prosecute and punish the most serious crimes of concern to the international community and to uphold the rule of law."

"From this standpoint, the announced measures are very unfortunate," foreign ministry press secretary Toshihiro Kitamura said in a statement.

Japan is the biggest funder of the ICC and a close US ally -- which is not a party to the international treaty that established the court.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier said in a statement, without providing examples, that the sanctioned "individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction".

The ICC replied in a statement on Tuesday, saying "When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk."

Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities and acts as a last resort when countries do not have adequate legal systems to ensure accountability.

- Israeli support -

Donald Trump's administration has already imposed sanctions against officials of the ICC, which issued in 2024 an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.

The measures bar them from entering the US and from carrying out transactions in the US financial system.

In an X post Tuesday evening, Netanyahu applauded the US sanctions and called the ICC "a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law".

The Netherlands, where the court is based at the Hague, "disapproves of the latest sanctions against officials and staff of the ICC," Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen wrote in an X post.

"International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates," he added.

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.

The ICC expressed concern over those withdrawals, asserting that such countries risked undermining the collective pursuit of justice.

- 'Contempt for international law' -

The US signed the Rome Statute establishing the ICC but never ratified the treaty. Israel, Russia and China are not ICC members either.

"The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicised supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate. We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty," Rubio's statement said.

Last week, four human rights groups sued Trump in a New York court over his sanctions targeting the ICC, saying the measures block victims of war crimes from pursuing justice.

One of the plaintiff groups, Human Rights Watch, decried the new sanctions in a statement on Tuesday.

The sanctions are "just the latest example of the Trump administration's utter contempt for international law and a naked attempt to shield American and Israeli officials implicated in serious crimes from justice," the rights group's Middle East and North Africa director Balkees Jarrah said in a statement.

In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to issue its own arrest warrants for senior court officials.

These included Akane, 70, an ICC judge since 2018 who was elected as the court's president in March 2024.

"Even if one judge were to die, we are easily replaceable, so there is really no value in targeting us," she said after the Russian announcement.

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A.P.Huber--NZN