Washington designated Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz
del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of
Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia, according to a statement from US Secretary
of State Marco Rubio.
"As
ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s
illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel.
The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate,
charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,"
Rubio said.
The ICC slammed the move, saying it was an attempt to
undermine the independence of an international judicial institution that
provides hope and justice to millions of victims of "unimaginable
atrocities."
Both judges Bossa and Ibanez Carranza have been on the ICC
bench since 2018. In 2020 they were involved in an appeals chamber decision
that allowed the ICC prosecutor to open a formal investigation into alleged war
crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
Since 2021, the court had deprioritized the investigation
into American troops in Afghanistan and focused on alleged crimes committed by
the Afghan government and the Taliban forces.
ICC judges also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former
Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri last
November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza
conflict. Alapini Gansou and Hohler ruled to authorize the arrest warrant
against Netanyahu and Gallant, Rubio said.
The move deepens the administration's animosity toward the
court. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed
sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the
court's work on Afghanistan.
The measures also follow a January vote at the US House of
Representatives to punish the ICC in protest over its Netanyahu arrest warrant.
The move underscored strong support among Trump's fellow Republicans for
Israel's government.
The measures triggered uproar among human-rights advocates.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said the
punitive measures were a "flagrant attack on the rule of law at the same
time as President Trump is working to undercut it at home."
Sanctions severely hamper individuals' abilities to carry
out even routine financial transactions as any banks with ties to the United
States, or that conduct transactions in dollars, are expected to have to comply
with the restrictions.
But the Treasury Department also issued general licenses,
including one allowing the wind-down of any existing transactions involving those
targeted on Thursday until July 08, as long as any payment to them is made to a
blocked, interest-bearing account located in the US.
The new sanctions come at a difficult time for the ICC,
which is already reeling from earlier US sanctions against its chief
prosecutor, Karim Khan, who last month stepped aside temporarily amid
a United Nations investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct.
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international
jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in
member states or if a situation is referred by the UN Security Council. The
United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
