ICC condemns new US sanctions as 'flagrant attack' on intl law

 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed continued 'consequences' against the ICC over its probe into Israeli war crimes  

News Desk -  The Cradle 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has condemned the new US sanctions targeting two of its judges over their involvement in the case against Israel, calling the move a “flagrant attack” on the “independence of an impartial judicial institution.”

The ICC said in a statement on 18 December that it “deplores the announcement of new designations for sanctions by the US administration against Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze (Georgia) and Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin (Mongolia),” adding that “these additional designations follow the earlier designation of nine elected officials of the Judiciary and the Office of the Prosecutor, drawn from all regional groups.”

“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates pursuant to the mandate conferred by its States Parties from across regions. Such measures targeting judges and prosecutors who were elected by the States Parties undermine the rule of law. When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court added. 

The ICC went on to say that it “stands firmly behind its personnel and behind victims of unimaginable atrocities,” and will “continue to carry out its mandate with independence and impartiality, in full accordance with the Rome Statute and in the interest of victims of international crimes.”

The US State Department announced the new sanctions earlier on Thursday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they were targeted for “efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent, including voting with the majority in favor of the ICC’s ruling against Israel’s appeal on 15 December.”

“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the US and Israel and wrongly subject US and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction,” he added. 

The US and Israel are “not party to the Rome Statute and therefore reject the ICC’s jurisdiction,” he went on to say. “We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC’s lawfare and overreach.”

Washington had already targeted nine ICC judges and prosecutors with sanctions and threatened to designate the entire court if it did not drop its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. This included chief prosecutor Karim Khan and two of his deputies.

The sanctioned judges say the sanctions have severed access to bank accounts and basic services, disrupting their personal finances and putting their personal lives under pressure.

The arrest warrants were issued by the court in November 2024 for Netanyahu and Gallant’s war crimes against Palestinian civilians during the genocide.

A warrant was also issued for late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in Gaza in October 2024.

Earlier this week, the ICC rejected an Israeli legal challenge seeking to block the case. Judges refused to overturn a lower court decision allowing the court to probe Israeli war crimes in Gaza. 

The Israeli appeal focused on whether the ICC prosecutor was required to issue a new notification to Israel before investigating events that took place after 7 October 2023. Israel argued that its assault on Gaza after Hamas's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a new situation triggered by additional referrals submitted to the court by several countries in November 2023.

ICC judges rejected the argument and said that the original notification issued in 2021 – when the court first opened its probe into Israeli crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank – already covered later events and that no new notification was needed. 

Washington has been pressuring the ICC and threatening further measures against it unless it amends the Rome Statute to shield US President Donald Trump and senior members of his government from any probes, Reuters reported earlier this month.

The US is also demanding that the ICC drop investigations into Israeli leaders, the report added.

The president of the ICC said at the start of this month that sanctions will not alter how judges interpret their mandate or handle cases.