In a dramatic step, the Trump administration on Thursday sanctioned four judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over cases relating to charges of war crimes against US soldiers in Afghanistan and the ICC’s recent arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US State Department imposed sanctions on Judges Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza (Peru), Reine Alapini Gansou (Benin), and Beti Hohler (Slovenia). Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the judges action, saying they had engaged in “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the United States and its ally, Israel. Rubio blamed the ICC as a politicized institution running away with more than it should be given its jurisdiction to prosecute nationals of nations beyond its reach.
The ICC reacted vigorously, condemning the sanctions as an egregious attempt to seek to subvert the institution’s autonomy and its ability to provide justice for the victims of atrocity worldwide. Judges Bossa and Carranza were members of a 2020 ICC ruling that cleared the way for a probe of alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan. While that was happening, Judges Alapini Gansou and Hohler were implicated last year in issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri regarding the Gaza conflict.
This latest move is a sharp turn in the Trump administration’s long-standing animus against the ICC. The administration previously sanctioned former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and a high-ranking aide in 2020 on similar grounds.
As much as sanctions complicate banking across borders for the targeted individuals particularly any financial dealing linked to the US dollar the Treasury Department has issued a temporary license permitting financial wind-downs for the judges until July 8, as long as payments go into blocked interest-bearing accounts in the United States.
