International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane expressed deep regret Friday over U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order authorizing sanctions on ICC staff.
In a statement, she condemned the order, signed Thursday, saying that the move is part of actions constituting “serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law-based international order and millions of victims (of crimes).”
The order allows the U.S. government to impose sanctions such as an asset freeze and a travel ban on ICC staff and their families. It comes as a retaliation for the ICC’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November 2024.
“We firmly reject any attempt to influence the independence and the impartiality of the Court or to politicize our judicial function,” Akane said in the statement.
Of the 125 ICC members, 79 issued a joint statement that measures to sanction the ICC “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes.”
The joint statement said that such sanctions could not only obstruct ongoing investigations but threaten the safety of ICC staff and people related to crime cases.
Although major countries including Britain, France, Germany and Canada joined the statement, Japan did not.
