The head of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has put war criminals on trial, has instead landed on a U.S. State Department sanctions list to be judged. After the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the United States has imposed successive international sanctions on ICC judges and prosecutors in retaliation. Because the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, it cannot take individual measures such as cutting off the ICC budget. Instead, international human rights groups criticized Washington for obstructing the court's work by blocking judges' and prosecutors' personal financial and professional networks.
The State Department said on the 18th (local time) that it added ICC President Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye to the sanctions list. Akane and Seye will have their U.S. asset frozen, and from Sept. 17 they will be blocked from financial and service transactions with U.S. persons and U.S. corporations. Minister Marco Rubio called the ICC a "corrupt and politicized supranational court" in a statement that day. Rubio said, "We will systematically dismantle the ICC until it can no longer threaten U.S. sovereignty."
Akane is a Japanese judge elected court president in March 2024. Her term runs until March next year. Seye, from Senegal, worked on the Palestine case prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Seye has also been nominated as a candidate in the ICC judicial election this December. The State Department said it sanctioned the two for "involvement in investigating and prosecuting officials of countries that did not consent to jurisdiction."
Including these two, the number of ICC officials placed on the sanctions list under Trump's second term has risen to 13. Nine of the 18 sitting ICC judges—half—are under sanctions. Not only judges but also members of the prosecution responsible for investigations have faced sweeping sanctions. The Washington Post (WP) said that in addition to former Prosecutor Karim Khan, who stepped down last month, two deputy prosecutors now leading the office on an interim basis are already on the U.S. sanctions list.
The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a United Nations body. Launched by the Rome Statute in 2002, the ICC is an independent institution created to try individuals such as presidents and soldiers involved in genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It only has a cooperation agreement with the U.N., and instead of asking the U.N. for money, its budget is shared by its 125 member states. The United States and Israel signed the Rome Statute but did not ratify it, so they are not members.
Because it is not a member, the U.S. government cannot use the dues cutoff tactic it has used to pressure the World Health Organization (WHO) or U.N. bodies against the ICC. That means it cannot wield financial leverage over the leadership. It also has no right to vote to overturn ICC rulings or remove judges.
Instead, the United States has been sanctioning ICC judges and prosecutors by placing them on the Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which it also used during tariff wars. Those on the list cannot receive or use funds, goods, or services provided by U.S. persons and U.S. corporations, similar to North Korean or Russian businesspeople under U.S. sanctions. For example, corporations that settle in dollars and European and Asian banks that transact with the United States cut off transactions with those listed to avoid the risk of U.S. government sanctions. Even judges and prosecutors at international organizations like the ICC find their personal bank accounts and credit cards, email accounts and cloud services, insurance, and airline use blocked one after another.
Khan, the former ICC prosecutor previously sanctioned by the United States, said he faced disruptions using his personal bank accounts and work email. Some civic groups that transact with the United States even halted cooperation with the ICC out of concern over violating sanctions.
The United States sharply escalated related sanctions after the ICC issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. At the time, the ICC issued the warrants on suspicion that the two committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza war. Netanyahu denied the allegations, countering that "the ICC operates on anti-Semitism." The ICC also previously opened a probe in 2020 into alleged U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. During his first term, President Trump sanctioned the prosecutor at the time over that investigation.
The United States and Israel both maintain that, as neither country is an ICC member, the court has no authority to try their nationals. The ICC, by contrast, says that because Palestine joined as a member state in 2015, crimes committed on Palestinian territory fall under its jurisdiction regardless of the suspects' nationality. The logic is the same as when a French court does not separately seek the Korean government's consent if a Korean commits a crime in France. The United States and Israel have differed over this jurisdictional issue since the ICC's 2002 launch, and after 2024 they entered into full confrontation with formal sanctions.
Sanctioning the court president and a senior trial lawyer does not allow the United States to nullify arrest warrants already issued by the ICC or ongoing trials. To date, the ICC has issued 60 arrest warrants, including for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has detained 21 of those individuals. In 2025, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested and transferred to The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is located. However, the ICC does not have its own police force. To actually arrest suspects, hand them over to the ICC, and bring them to trial, it depends entirely on cooperation from member states.
Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Beerenstsen said, "The ICC must be able to carry out its mission freely," condemning the U.S. sanctions. The ICC also said in a statement, "If judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, the international legal order itself is put at risk." Four international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Foundations, filed suit in federal court in New York, arguing the sanctions are unconstitutional.
Liz Evenson, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference, "The Trump administration wants to grant impunity to any individual they choose."