US sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court

The United States imposed sanctions on senior officials of the International Criminal Court, including the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the court of “illegal attempts to bring Americans under its jurisdiction.”

The Hague-based International Criminal Court is investigating whether US forces have committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

The court has been criticized by the United States since its inception, and it is one of twelve countries that has not joined the court.

Belkis Jarrah, senior adviser at the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, condemned the US sanctions, describing them as “a new shameful inferiority to the US commitment to achieving justice for the victims of the worst crimes.”

She said in a tweet on her Twitter account that Pompeo’s move was “an astonishing departure from US sanctions, designed to punish rights violators and corrupt rulers, to target those who investigate war crimes.”

The International Criminal Court, established by a United Nations treaty in 2002, investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and intervenes when national authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute the responsible.

The treaty has been ratified by 123 countries, including the United Kingdom. But the United States, along with China, India and Russia, refused to join, while some African countries accused the body of unfairly targeting Africans.

What are the penalties?

President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order in June, allowing the United States to block the assets of ICC staff and bar them from entering the country.

Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday that Bensouda and the head of the Specialization, Integration and Cooperation Division, Vaciso Mushushoku, would be punished for the decision.

Pompeo described the International Criminal Court as “a completely broken and corrupt institution,” and said that those who continue to “materially support these people are also at risk of sanctions.”

The US State Department has also imposed restrictions on the issuance of visas to ICC employees who participate in “efforts to investigate US personnel.”

When President Trump issued his executive order in June, the International Criminal Court condemned what it described as “further threats and coercive measures” against him.

“The attack on the International Criminal Court also represents an attack on the interests of the victims of atrocious crimes, for many of whom the court represents the last hope of justice,” his statement said.

Who is Fatou Bensouda?

As a former Justice Minister for the Gambia, her native country, Bensouda was in an ideal position to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, where she was his deputy throughout his term.

She previously worked as a senior legal counsel in the United Nations-backed court that tried gang leaders involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

While Bensouda has expanded the ICC investigation to investigate disputes elsewhere, which has now angered the United States, Africa remains his main focus of attention.

All ICC trials to date have focused solely on Africans, and the leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo militia, Thomas Lubanga, became the first person to be convicted by the ICC for war crimes in 2012. .

But Bensouda has also faced a series of defeats, including the acquittal of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo of war crimes charges in 2019 and the withdrawal of charges of crimes against humanity against the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, in 2014.

• International Criminal Court: US threats “will not deter us from our work”

What is the International Criminal Court investigating?

The International Criminal Court began investigating alleged war crimes committed by the United States and others in the Afghan conflict earlier this year.

In accordance with the legal procedures of the International Criminal Court, the court can issue arrest warrants or a subpoena once the plaintiffs have gathered sufficient evidence and identified the suspects. They will then decide if there is enough evidence to take the case to trial.

At the time, Pompeo vowed to protect Americans from the investigation, describing it as “a truly astonishing act by an irresponsible political establishment posing as a legal body.”

A 2016 report by the International Criminal Court said there is a reasonable basis to believe that the US military practiced torture in secret detention sites run by the CIA.

The court is expected to examine the behavior of the Taliban, the Afghan government and US forces since May 2003.

Afghanistan is a member of the tribunal, but Afghan officials have expressed opposition to the investigation.