US sanctions on top members of the International Criminal Court “undermine the rule of law”, the court said in a statement on Tuesday after Washington imposed measures on its president.
Washington also slapped sanctions on ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal in the Trump administration’s latest salvo against The Hague-based court. The US, which is not a party to the international treaty that established the ICC, has already imposed sanctions against several of the court’s officials. It is largely a response to ICC investigations targeting Israel, a US ally.
In 2024, the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.
“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court said in a statement sent to reporters. The court, based in The Hague, said it remained “undeterred” and “stands firmly behind its personnel and behind victims of unimaginable atrocities.
