Washington sanctions the president of the ICC and a Senegalese lawyer

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new US sanctions Tuesday against the president of the International Criminal Court, Japanese judge Tomoko Akane, and Senegalese lawyer Abdoulaye Seye. This decision marks a new stage in the Trump administration's offensive against the international court based in The Hague.

The sanctions were imposed under an executive order signed by Donald Trump . They prohibit Tomoko Akane and Abdoulaye Seye from entering the United States and from conducting any transactions within the US financial system. Rubio justified the measure by stating that these two individuals "directly participated in the ICC's efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to the Court's jurisdiction."

On the X network, the US Secretary of State presented this decision as part of Washington's "unwavering mission" to "protect Americans from this sham tribunal." The State Department called the ICC a "corrupt and fatally politicized" jurisdiction, accusing the Court of having "abused its authority" and "exceeded its mandate."

Founded in 2002, the ICC prosecutes perpetrators of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The United States is not a member, but the Court's statute allows it to prosecute nationals of non-member states when the crimes are committed on the territory of a member state. It is precisely this point that Washington disputes.

Rubio argues that the ICC poses a threat to US personnel tasked with enforcing Trump's immigration policy or conducting operations against vessels in international waters as part of the war on drugs. Trump, for his part, has stated that the US campaign aims to protect his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been wanted by the Court since the issuance of arrest warrants related to the war in Gaza.

Russia is, to date, the only other country to have sanctioned Tomoko Akane. On the American side, pressure on the ICC has been intensifying for several months: Chad and Venezuela have already responded to Washington's call by withdrawing from the Court. Last month, Rubio announced his intention to strengthen this diplomatic campaign to convince other member states to leave the institution.

The ICC responded on Tuesday that it remained "determined" and stood in solidarity with all its staff. In a statement, the Court warned that "measures targeting judges, prosecutors, and agents working to fulfill the mandate entrusted to the ICC by States undermine the rule of law." It added that threatening judicial actors in the pursuit of the law "jeopardizes the international legal order itself."

Three ICC judges had already sued the Trump administration in June, deeming the sanctions illegal. Last week, four human rights organizations filed their own lawsuit, arguing that victims of war crimes were being denied access to justice.