The United States has sanctioned two judges and two prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including Nicolas Guillou, former Pre-Trial Judge at the Special Court in The Hague.
In addition to Guillou, those sanctioned are Kimberly Prost, Nazhat Shameem Khan, and Mame Mandiaye Niang.
Guillou was sanctioned for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Prost was sanctioned for authorizing ICC investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Prosecutors Shameem Khan and Niang were sanctioned for allegedly supporting actions against Israel and issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
According to the U.S. State Department, all assets owned by these individuals in the United States “are blocked and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the ICC as a “threat to national security” and added that “it has been used as a tool for legal warfare” against the United States and Israel.
“The United States has been clear and unwavering in opposing the ICC’s policies, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and overreach of legal authority,” Rubio stated.
This second round of sanctions comes less than three months after the U.S. administration’s previous decision to impose sanctions on four other ICC judges.
The ICC judges had issued arrest warrants in November of last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ibrahim al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
