LAST UPDATE | 20 Aug 2025

THE UNITED STATES has imposed sanctions on four more International Criminal Court (ICC) judges and prosecutors, including from France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal over its actions against Israel.

The US State Department’s website states that the sanctions have been issued “in response to the ICC’s ongoing threat to Americans and Israelis”. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the ICC is “a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel”, using a term popular with Donald Trump’s supporters.

Neither the US nor Israel are members of the ICC. 

Rubio said that the four people targeted from the tribunal based in The Hague had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the US or Israel “without the consent of either nation.”

The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last November.

The arrest warrant was issued for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, who has since been killed. 

The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

Netanyahu welcomed the new US sanctions this afternoon, calling them a “firm measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the State of Israel and the IDF, and for truth and justice”. 

Guillou, a veteran jurist, had also worked for several years in the US assisting the Justice Department with judicial cooperation during Barack Obama’s presidency.

A spokesperson for France’s foreign ministry said the sanctions were “in contradiction to the principle of an independent judiciary”.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Canadian judge Kimberly Prost has also been targeted by the latest US sanctions over her involvement in a case that authorised an investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan, including by US forces.

Under the sanctions, the Trump administration will bar entry of the ICC judges to the US and block any property they have in the world’s largest economy – measures more often taken against US adversaries than individuals from close allies.

Rubio also slapped sanctions on two deputy prosecutors – Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal.

The US State Department said the two were punished by the US for supporting “illegitimate ICC actions against Israel”, including by supporting the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

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The Trump administration has roundly rejected the authority of the court, which is backed by almost all European democracies and was set up as a court of last resort when national systems do not allow for justice.

In February, Trump signed an executive order claiming that the court had “abused its power” by issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu 

He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations.

On Friday, Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska even though Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant, a factor that has stopped him from traveling more widely since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Rubio slapped sanctions on four other ICC judges in June.

With reporting from © AFP 2025