US sanctions ICC president, senior trial lawyer in latest attack on court
By Simon Lewis, Ryan Patrick Jones and Ismail Shakil WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. 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 Hague-based court, which was established in 2002 by the…
The US has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a senior trial lawyer. According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the move targets ICC President Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge, and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese trial lawyer, for directly engaging in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.
The sanctions, which freeze any assets they have in US jurisdictions or come into contact with the US financial system, are part of the Trump administration's campaign against the ICC. The US is not a member of the ICC, which was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
The ICC asserts its jurisdiction only if member states are unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities themselves, and also has the power to prosecute nationals of non-member states who commit atrocities on the territory of a member state. The US says it is acting to protect Americans from what it calls a "sham of a court". The ICC has been investigating or trying soldiers, commanders, and political officials from countries such as Israel and the US.
Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, Tempo.co English, Associated Press, DW News, DW English (Top Stories) — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
