Judges argue sanctions aimed to punish and coerce ICC selections on US and Israeli struggle crimes instances.
Revealed On 25 Jun 2026
Three Worldwide Prison Courtroom judges are suing United States President Donald Trump and his administration over sanctions imposed on them last year, arguing the measures had been illegal.
Within the lawsuit filed within the federal courtroom in Manhattan on Wednesday, judges Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin stated the sanctions had been designed to exert extrajudicial stress with the target of punishing and coercing the judges.
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The Trump administration imposed sanctions on a number of judges on the ICC final 12 months in an unprecedented retaliation over the tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a previous resolution to open a case into alleged struggle crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
On account of the sanctions, the judges noticed their US-based property and property blocked. US-based entities had been additionally forbidden from participating in transactions with them, together with by way of the “provision of funds, items or providers”.
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has worldwide jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes towards humanity, and struggle crimes in member states or if a state of affairs is referred by the UN Safety Council.
Though the ICC has jurisdiction over struggle crimes, crimes towards humanity and genocide in its 125 member nations, some nations, together with the US, China, Russia, and Israel, don’t recognise its authority.
Throughout Trump’s first time period, his administration imposed sanctions on the ICC’s high prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and certainly one of her aides over the courtroom’s work on Afghanistan.
The lawsuit argues that the sanctions had been towards the regulation as they exceeded the scope of the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act and weren’t based mostly on a real nationwide emergency or extraordinary menace.
“The Sanctions Regime … is designed to exert extra-judicial stress on these judges and their colleagues on the ICC bench by focusing on their monetary and different private pursuits, with the target of punishing them for prior judicial selections and coercing them into prioritizing their non-public pursuits over deciding instances on the idea of the regulation and details,” the lawsuit stated.
“Being subjected to such sanctions beneath IEEPA is tantamount to the monetary dying penalty. As a result of sanctions, Judges Prost, Bossa, and Alapini-Gansou are not ready, amongst different issues, to make use of bank cards; entry banking providers; use widespread on-line platforms, resembling Amazon and Google; guide journey; and in some instances, get hold of medical health insurance,” it stated.
The judges additionally stated that the sanctions bar the submission of proof and argument in any pending or future continuing earlier than them.
