US President Donald Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) have halted the tribunal’s work, say its officials and lawyers. The Trump administration sanctioned the court in February as a result of the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant. In slapping sanctions on the ICC, the Trump administration labeled the arrest warrants against Gallant and Netanyahu as “baseless.”
According to reporting by PBS, the ICC has faced significant challenges to its work as a result of these sanctions, including Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan losing access to his email and having his bank accounts frozen. US staffers in the Hague have been told they would risk arrest if they ever make a trip back to the US. The ICC is currently the only permanent international court that is tasked with the prosecution of individuals for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
Khan is now on leave amid pending investigations into his alleged sexual misconduct and Trump’s sanctions. In Khan’s absence, Deputy Prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang have now assumed leadership, according to an ICC statement.
Trump’s executive order slapping sanctions on the ICC mentions that neither Israel nor the US are party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and therefore do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. The US has established policies that are hostile to the ICC, including the notable “American Service-Members’ Protection Act” dubbed by many as the “Hague Invasion Act”, signed into law by US President George W. Bush in 2002, a year before the US invasion of Iraq. The act authorizes the President of the United States to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.”
