Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are facing the weight of US sanctions in their everyday lives after the Trump administration decided to go after them over investigations into US and Israeli officials.
The ICC is based in The Hague, the Netherlands, and was established in 2002 to prosecute international crimes and crimes against humanity. Neither Israel nor the US is a member of the ICC. The American sanctions are on nine officials, including six judges. Among those, the sanctions hit ICC top prosecutor Karim Khan, deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem, judges Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza.
The US sanctions are affecting the lives of officials and their families, but they all seem resolute in continuing their work despite the difficulties. The sanctions have been used so far against individuals guilty of crimes, including Vladimir Putin and Osama bin Laden. Some of the staffers have also faced sanctions from Russia.
All sanctioned individuals and their families have been banned from entering the United States and face several limitations on opening bank accounts, using websites and accessing services. Prost reported being caught off guard by Amazon’s Alexa system and that an e-book title he bought suddenly disappeared from her account.
Overall, they all report sudden roadblocks in daily activities and uncertainty over what they can and can’t access. The first Trump administration had already sanctioned ICC judges. It never lifted the sanctions until Joe Biden took over in 2020.
There is a growing fear that the US could sanction the entire ICC, making it hard for the court to pay its staff and continue its work. Speaking to the Associated Press, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that “the United States will not tolerate efforts to violate our sovereignty or to wrongfully subject US or Israeli persons to the ICC’s unjust jurisdiction.”
This article used information from The Associated Press.
