Trump administration imposes sanctions on two extra ICC judges for investigating Israel

[ad_1] US President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on two extra judges from the Worldwide Legal Courtroom over their involvement within the court docket's case in opposition to Israel, ratcheting up Washington's strain marketing campaign in opposition to the conflict tribunal.

In November 2024, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli protection chief Yoav Gallant for alleged conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity throughout the Gaza battle.

The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on 9 ICC judges and prosecutors and threatened to designate the court docket in its entirety – a transfer that will be detrimental to its operations – if the ICC didn't drop its prices in opposition to the Israeli leaders.

Washington's different calls for on the court docket are that it formally finish an earlier probe of US troops over their actions in Afghanistan and alter its founding statute to make sure that it could not pursue a prosecution of Trump and his high officers, a Trump administration official advised Reuters final week.

"The ICC has continued to interact in politicised actions concentrating on Israel, which set a harmful precedent for all nations. We won't tolerate ICC abuses of energy that violate the sovereignty of the USA and Israel and wrongly topic US and Israeli individuals to the ICC’s jurisdiction," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in an announcement.

Rubio mentioned the USA was designating ICC choose Gocha Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia and mentioned that they had "immediately engaged in efforts by the ICC to analyze, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, with out Israel's consent".

The transfer was swiftly praised by Israel's Netanyahu, who thanked the Trump administration for its efforts to "confront the scourge of lawfare".

Earlier this yr the US administration sanctioned six different judges and the court docket's prosecutor Karim Khan and his two deputies.

The measures imply the judges can't journey to the USA or maintain any belongings there however additionally they make it nearly not possible for them to carry bank cards, making on a regular basis monetary transactions and on-line purchases tough.

'Flagrant assault' Rubio referred to the magistrates' involvement in voting to reject one in all a number of Israeli authorized challenges in opposition to the ICC probe into its conduct of the Gaza conflict earlier this week.

Learn extra Israel is committing 'genocide' in Gaza, UN investigators say

The judges named have been a part of a panel that refused to overturn a decrease court docket resolution that the prosecution's investigation into alleged crimes underneath its jurisdiction may embody occasions following the assault on Israel by militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The ICC mentioned it deplored the brand new spherical of sanctions, which is the fourth spherical of measures this yr.

"These sanctions are a flagrant assault in opposition to the independence of an neutral judicial establishment," it mentioned in an announcement, including that the measures put the worldwide authorized order in danger.

The US and Israel usually are not members of the ICC, however the Palestinian territories have been admitted as a member state in 2015.

The ICC is the world's everlasting conflict crimes tribunal with 125 member states, together with your complete EU however excluding main powers China, Russia and the USA, amongst others.

The court docket's mandate permits it to prosecute people for alleged crimes dedicated by them or nationals underneath their command on the territory of a member state, together with sitting heads of state.

Th Netherlands, which hosts the ICC in The Hague, additionally condemned the sanctions and mentioned worldwide courts ought to be capable to work with out interference.

"Worldwide courts and tribunals should be capable to perform their mandates unhindered," Dutch Overseas Minister David van Weel mentioned on social media platform X.