US imposes sanctions on ICC president, senior lawyer

Trump administration sanctions ICC president and senior prosecutor involved in the case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By World Israel News Staff

The Trump administration imposed sanctions Tuesday on the president of the International Criminal Court and a senior lawyer involved in the prosecution that sought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest, escalating Washington’s campaign against the Hague-based tribunal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against ICC President Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge, and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese senior trial lawyer in the court’s Office of the Prosecutor.

The measures block property and assets under US jurisdiction and effectively bar the two officials from much of the US-linked international financial system.

The Treasury Department issued a license allowing transactions involving Akane and Seye to be wound down through September 17.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” Rubio said.

He accused the court of repeatedly exceeding its authority at the expense of countries that never agreed to place themselves under its jurisdiction.

“The International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” Rubio said. “We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.”

The action comes as President Donald Trump’s administration broadens an effort announced last month to weaken the ICC and persuade countries to withdraw from the institution.

Washington has sharply opposed the court’s pursuit of Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, against whom ICC judges issued arrest warrants in November 2024 over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.

Israel has rejected the allegations and maintains that the ICC has no jurisdiction over its citizens because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court. The United States is also not an ICC member.

The court maintains that it can exercise jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, recognizing the Palestinian Authority as the “State of Palestine,” a signatory of the Rome Statute.

Seye served on the prosecution team involved in the case against Netanyahu and has also been nominated for election as an ICC judge.

The warrants were initially sought under then-chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who announced in May 2024 that his office was seeking warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as several senior Hamas leaders, over alleged crimes committed during and after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Khan was himself sanctioned by the United States over the Israeli case. He was removed from office by the ICC’s member states on July 24 following disciplinary proceedings that found serious misconduct and a serious breach of duty stemming from sexual misconduct allegations.

Khan has denied wrongdoing and said through his lawyer that he would challenge the decision.

His removal did not cancel the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, with the prosecution continuing under the court’s remaining leadership.

Akane, meanwhile, has been one of the most prominent public defenders of the ICC amid growing US pressure.

She presided over the Appeals Chamber that in April 2025 handed Israel a partial legal victory by overturning a lower chamber’s rejection of an Israeli jurisdictional challenge and ordering judges to reconsider the issue. The ruling did not, however, revoke the warrants.

The Trump administration has maintained that even subjecting Israeli or American officials to such proceedings constitutes an unacceptable infringement of national sovereignty.

Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 authorizing economic and travel sanctions against ICC personnel involved in cases targeting the United States and allied countries that have not accepted the court’s authority.

Washington subsequently sanctioned a series of prosecutors and judges connected to proceedings concerning Israel and an earlier investigation involving alleged actions by US personnel in Afghanistan.

The ICC condemned the latest sanctions and vowed that they would not change its work.

“Measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff who work towards the fulfillment of the mandate that was conferred to the ICC by states undermine the rule of law,” the court said.

“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” it added.

Netanyahu, however, praised Washington’s action and thanked Rubio for confronting the tribunal.

“The ICC has become a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law,” Netanyahu said, accusing the court’s leadership of corruptly targeting Israel.

The prime minister also thanked Rubio for making clear that ICC officials would face consequences for what he called the court’s “illegitimate overreach.”

The sanctions are part of an increasingly aggressive US campaign against the court. In July, the State Department formally announced what it described as a campaign to “dismantle” the threat the ICC poses to American sovereignty.

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