The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on 4 International Criminal Court judges in retaliation for the tribunal’s probe into struggle crimes dedicated by Israel throughout its assaults on Gaza and the West Bank.
The State Department mentioned Thursday that it will freeze any property that the ICC judges, who come from Benin, Peru, Slovenia and Uganda, have in U.S. jurisdictions. The transfer is simply the most recent step that the administration has taken to punish the ICC and its officers for investigations undertaken towards Israel and the United States.
“As ICC judges, these 4 people have actively engaged within the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions concentrating on America or our shut ally, Israel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned in a press release.
“The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,” Rubio said. “This harmful assertion and abuse of energy infringes upon the sovereignty and nationwide safety of the United States and our allies, together with Israel.”
In February, the Hague-based court docket’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was positioned on Washington’s checklist of “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons,” barring him from doing business with Americans and inserting restrictions on his entry into the united statesafter he issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others.
The new sanctions goal ICC Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, who’s from the West African nation of Benin and was a part of the pre-trial chamber of judges who issued the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu final yr. She additionally served on the bench that initially greenlit the investigation into alleged Israeli crimes within the Palestinian territories in 2021.
The 69-year-old was additionally a part of the panel of judges who issued the arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023. Last yr, a court docket in Moscow issued a warrant for her arrest.
From Slovenia, Beti Hohler was elected as a decide in 2023. She beforehand labored within the prosecutor’s workplace on the court docket, main Israel to object to her participation within the proceedings involving Israeli officers. Hohler mentioned in a press release final yr that she had by no means labored on the Palestinian territories investigation throughout her eight years as a prosecutor.
Bouth Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, from Peru, and Solomy Balungi Bossa, from Uganda, are appeals judges on the ICC. Each lady has labored on circumstances involving Israel.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of and neither acknowledges the legitimacy of the court docket, which has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged struggle crimes over his navy response in Gaza after the Hamas assault towards Israel in October 2023. Israel strongly denies the allegations.
During his first time period in workplace, Trump focused the ICC with sanctions, voicing displeasure with probes into Israel and complaints about alleged struggle crimes mentioned to have been dedicated by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Those sanctions have been rescinded by President Joe Biden’s administration in early 2021.
Rubio mentioned the U.S. would proceed to take motion to guard its and Israel’s pursuits on the court docket. “The United States will take no matter actions we deem obligatory to guard our sovereignty, that of Israel, and another U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” he mentioned.
Liz Evenson, worldwide justice director at Human Rights Watch, mentioned the Trump administration’s sanctions “intention to discourage the ICC from searching for accountability amid grave crimes dedicated in Israel and Palestine, and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, together with with U.S. complicity.”
“U.S. sanctions on ICC judges are a flagrant attack on the rule of law at the same time as President Trump is working to undercut it at home,” Evenson said. “Sanctions are supposed to put a cease to human rights violations, to not punish these searching for justice for the worst crimes.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com