US President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Obama appointee suspends President Trump’s executive order banning entry to International Criminal Court officials and freezing their American assets, claiming it violates right to freedom of speech.
By World Israel News Staff
A federal judge in Maine suspended an executive order issued by President Donald Trump earlier this year sanctioning the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
On Friday, Judge Nancy Torresen, an Obama appointee to the US District Four for the District of Maine, issued an injunction halting enforcement of Trump’s February 6 executive order imposing sanctions on employees of the ICC, as well as any individuals known to be involved in aiding the ICC in probing American citizens or the citizens of allied nations, including Israel.
The order imposed a travel ban on ICC staff members, their immediate family members, and anyone involved in ICC probes targeting Americans or citizens of countries allied with the US.
In addition, the order froze the assets of ICC staffers and ICC-affiliated individuals, with specific sanctions on Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan.
Under the order, American citizens who work on behalf of Khan or other sanctioned ICC individuals could face civil or criminal penalties.
In her ruling, Torresen claimed that Trump’s order constituted a violation of the constitutional right to free speech.
“The executive order appears to restrict substantially more speech than necessary to further that end,” Torresen wrote.
“The executive order broadly prohibits any speech-based services that benefit the prosecutor, regardless of whether those beneficial services relate to an ICC investigation of the United States, Israel, or another U.S. ally.”
Neither the White House nor the ICC had an immediate comment on the ruling.
The decision comes just days after the ICC rejected an appeal by Israel to nix the arrest warrants issued by the court last November against Netanyahu and Gallant.
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