Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday condemned the latest US sanctions on senior court officials as a “flagrant attack” on its independence and said it would continue seeking justice for atrocities around the world.
The US State Department announced on Tuesday that it had sanctioned ICC president Tomoko Akane of Japan and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal. The measures freeze any assets they hold in US jurisdictions or that come into contact with the US financial system.
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The ICC said the Trump administration has now imposed sanctions on nine of its 18 judges, both deputy prosecutors, its former chief prosecutor and another member of the prosecution office. The US has accused the court of overstepping its mandate by investigating and seeking to prosecute senior military and political officials from countries such as Israel and the United States that are not members of the court.
In a statement, the court said that when “judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk”. It added that the court “will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called the ICC “a corrupt and fatally politicised supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate”. The move came weeks after Rubio said the US was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to US sovereignty”. He said he would pressure the court’s 125 member states to withdraw, sanction organisations that work with the court and bar staff from travelling to the United States.
Since then, Venezuela and Chad have said they plan to leave the court, taking the number of countries that have moved to quit the ICC over the past year to five. A country’s decision to leave the court takes a year to be formalised.
The sanctions can affect the daily lives of court officials. They block ICC officials and their families from entering the United States and can cut off access to basic financial services. Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, who was sanctioned last year, lost access to her credit cards, and Amazon’s Alexa stopped responding to her. “Your whole world is restricted,” she told The Associated Press after she was targeted.
Japan also criticised the sanctions after Akane was targeted. “The announced measures are very unfortunate,” Foreign Ministry press secretary Toshihiro Kitamura said in a statement on Wednesday. He said Japan has consistently supported the ICC in its efforts to prosecute and punish the most serious crimes of concern to the international community and to uphold the rule of law. “Japan will remain committed to strengthening the rule of law in the international community, while maintaining communication with related countries,” he said.
Balkees Jarrah, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, called the sanctions “the latest example of the Trump administration’s utter contempt for international law and a naked attempt to shield American and Israeli officials implicated in serious crimes from justice”. Human Rights Watch and three other groups sued the Trump administration last week over its campaign against the ICC. The complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, says Trump’s executive order last year targeting the Hague-based court and the US sanctions issued against a UN human rights expert and three Palestinian rights groups represent a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice and should be struck down”, according to a press release.
The latest US action has widened its confrontation with the ICC, drawing criticism from the court, Japan and rights groups, even as the tribunal said it would continue to carry out its mandate.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
