ICC president hits back at Trump administration penalties in remote UN address

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The president of the International Criminal Court accused the Trump administration of trying to obstruct international justice by imposing penalties on the tribunal and vowed that it would not succeed.

Judge Tomoko Akane of Japan, briefing the United Nations remotely on Monday because of U.S. sanctions, called on all 193 U.N. member nations — not just the 125 countries that are part of the ICC — “to take concrete action, individually and collectively, in defense of the court.”

President Donald Trump’s administration has imposed a series of sanctions on ICC officials and then targeted the entire court last month as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal over investigations into the United States and its allies, including Israel.

Akane said her remote address to the U.N. General Assembly was a result of the “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” U.S. steps threatening judges, prosecutors and the ICC itself as an institution.

She stressed the timing of the Trump administration announcing sweeping new sanctions on the court on Oct. 9. That was the day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African jurist Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge, for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

“The contrast could not be starker,” the ICC president said. “On the one hand, global recognition of the value of international justice, on the other, an attempt to subdue the institution that embodies it.”

The ICC was set up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide when countries are unwilling or unable to do so. The United States is not a party to the court.

The State Department had no immediate comment on Akane’s remarks.

In announcing the latest sanctions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. “will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate against us.”

The ICC president countered Monday by saying, “Let me be clear: The court will continue to fully discharge its mandate with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes.”

The European Union and other supporters stepped to the podium at the U.N. General Assembly to strongly support the ICC and its work seeking justice for humanity’s worst crimes.