ICC Blasts New US Sanctions on President as 'Flagrant Attack'

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday condemned the latest round of US sanctions targeting senior ICC staff, including its president, calling the move a "flagrant attack" on the tribunal's independence and vowing to continue seeking justice for atrocities worldwide.

The State Department announced Tuesday it had sanctioned ICC President Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, freezing any assets they hold in US jurisdictions or that pass through the US financial system.

The Trump administration has now sanctioned nine of the ICC's 18 judges, both of its deputy prosecutors, its former chief prosecutor and one other prosecution office staffer, the court said. Washington accuses the ICC of overstepping its mandate by investigating officials from countries — including Israel and the United States — that are not court members.

The court said in a statement that when "judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk," adding it "will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called the ICC "a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court." The sanctions follow Rubio's announcement weeks earlier of a "sweeping campaign" to pressure the court's 125 member states to withdraw, sanction organizations working with the court, and bar its staff from traveling to the US. Venezuela and Chad have since said they plan to leave, bringing to five the number of countries exiting the court in the past year.

The sanctions can upend officials' daily lives, blocking travel to the US and access to basic financial services. Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, sanctioned last year, told the Associated Press she lost access to her credit cards and that Amazon's Alexa stopped responding to her. "Your whole world is restricted," she said.

The court's assembly of states parties called the sanctions an "escalation" risking harm to ongoing investigations. Japan's foreign ministry called the measures "very unfortunate," while opposition leader Yuichiro Tamaki called them "outrageous and intolerable" and urged Tokyo to push back. Human Rights Watch called the sanctions part of the administration's "utter contempt for international law." The group and three others have sued the administration over its broader campaign against the court.