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Of: TT
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February 1 | Photo: Peter Dejong / AP / TT
The chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, is blacklisted in the United States. Stock Photography.
The United States faces sanctions against Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The reason is that Bensouda is investigating American war crimes in Afghanistan.
Several ICC employees are blacklisted by the United States in protest against the court investigating alleged US war crimes. In addition to Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, an ICC division chief who contributed to the investigation, and other unidentified employees are also blacklisted.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that even more people and institutions could be at risk of sanctions if they contribute to the ICC investigation.
– Today we take the next step, because the ICC sadly continues to target Americans, says Pompeo.
The US announcement comes after Bensouda was tasked this spring with the task of investigating whether the Taliban, Afghan military or US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
UN: Guterres concerned
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said the secretary-general was concerned about the US decision. Dujarric also says that the UN expects the restrictions on people to be enforced in accordance with the UN-US agreement that forms the basis for the UN headquarters location in New York.
The agreement has meant, among other things, that Fatou Bensouda and others with entry bans, despite the fact that the United States already withdrew their visa this spring, were able to visit the UN headquarters in official contexts.
Receive strong criticism
Several human rights groups oppose the decision. Richard Dicker, international chief justice for Human Rights Watch, calls it a “staggering perversion of US sanctions.”
“The Trump administration has distorted the sanctions tool to prevent justice, not just for individual victims of war crimes, but for victims of abuse around the world who turn to the International Criminal Court for justice,” he said Richard Dicker.
The threat of sanctions has existed since last spring, when the ICC announced investigations into US war crimes. In June, President Donald Trump approved new sanctions against people with ties to the ICC.
The United States, like several other countries, including Russia and China, is not a member of the ICC and believes that the country has its own procedures for handling allegations against its own military.
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