U.S. Sanctions ICC Chief Akane

Washington/Brussels, Aug. 18 (Jiji Press)–The U.S. government on Tuesday announced sanctions against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane of Japan, decrying The Hague-based court’s “assault on state sovereignty.” The ICC has been faced with increased pressure from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, in response to its war crime investigations involving U.S. troops and its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The United States is not a member of the ICC. Under the sanctions, any assets held in the United States by those on the list will be frozen and travel to the United States will be prohibited. Besides Akane, ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal will also be subject to the measures. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of the ICC, “We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.” The court “is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” he said. Akane and Seye “have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” Rubio added. “Our whole of government campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to national sovereignty will be sweeping,” the secretary said. Last month, Rubio said that he would urge ICC member states to withdraw from the court. In response to the U.S. sanctions, the ICC said in a statement, “Measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff who work towards the fulfilment of the mandate that was conferred to the ICC…undermine the rule of law.” “When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the ICC said. The ICC “remains undeterred and stands firmly behind its personnel and behind victims of unimaginable atrocities,” it said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]