US President Donald Trump on Thursday authorized economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, repeating action he took during his first term.
The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu, who along with former Israeli minister of defense Yoav Gallant and a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas is wanted by the ICC over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Photo: Reuters
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz yesterday said that Trump was wrong to impose sanctions on the ICC.
“Sanctions are the wrong tool,” Scholz said. “They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important.”
However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of Trump, said the sanctions showed it might be time to leave the ICC.
“It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions! New winds are blowing in international politics. We call it the Trump-tornado,” he wrote on X.
The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated, and barring them and their families from visiting the US.
Court officials convened meetings in The Hague yesterday to discuss the implications of the sanctions, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said.
It was unclear how quickly the US would announce the names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
The US, China, Russia and Israel are not members of the ICC.
Trump signed the executive order after US Senate Democrats last week blocked a Republican-led effort to pass legislation setting up a sanctions regime targeting the war crimes court.
The court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braced for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, sources have said.
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