New York, Nov. 2 (Jiji Press)–International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane on Monday strongly criticized U.S. sanctions imposed on The Hague, the Netherlands-based organization and its judges including herself. The sanctions are “an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the court from doing what it was created to do,” she said in the ICC’s annual report to the United Nations. Akane presented the report in a prerecorded video as she has been unable to visit the U.N. headquarters in New York due to the U.S. sanctions. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump added Akane, a Japanese national, to its sanctions list in August and the ICC as an institution in October. “When judges are punished for their decisions, whether through sanctions or through criminal convictions, it is not only those judges who are targeted, but judicial independence itself,” Akane said, asking international society for action to defend the ICC. While noting that the ICC has taken extensive steps to protect its operations, personnel and systems, Akane said that resilience cannot be built by the court alone. “The court has called and once again calls upon all U.N. member states to take concrete action, individually and collectively, in defense of the court,” she said. The sanctions on the ICC are an “unprecedented step,” Akane said, adding, “These measures are intended to disrupt the court’s operations and to intimidate its staff and all those who cooperate with it.” Nine of the court’s 18 judges are targeted in the U.S. sanctions, and their effects have reached not only the officials themselves but also ICC staff members and their families as well as victims and witnesses, she said. Also pointing to guilty rulings issued by a Russian court against nine ICC officials, including Akane, in December 2025, she suggested that the U.S. sanctions and Russia’s criminal convictions are jeopardizing the independence of justice. The ICC “will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence,” she stressed. “History will judge how the international community protected the court,” Akane said. “The time to act is now.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
