{
  "id": 1821296,
  "title": "US sanctions ICC president, senior trial lawyer in latest attack on court",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/us-sanctions-icc-president-senior-trial-lawyer-in-latest-attack-on",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-18T22:46:38.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Al-Monitor",
    "slug": "al-monitor",
    "url": "https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/08/us-sanctions-icc-president-senior-trial-lawyer-latest-attack-court"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}