ICC ‘deplores’ fresh sanctions imposed by the US on prosecutors and judges.

According to the ICC, it “deplores” the recent penalties imposed by the United States on its prosecutors and judges. New penalties against two ICC judges and two prosecutors for their involvement in attempts to prosecute US and Israeli nationals were announced by the US State Department on Wednesday.

The ICC is a “national security threat” and “an instrument of lawfare” against the United States and Israel, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, praised the US action. In connection with Israel’s conflict in Gaza, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

France expressed “dismay” that one of its judges, Nicolas Guillou, was among those sanctioned, joining the ICC in condemning the US action.

Judge Kimberly Prost of Canada and deputy prosecutors Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal and Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji were among the three other ICC officials whom the United States named. In a statement announcing the fines, Rubio denounced the court’s “politicization, abuse of power, and illegitimate judicial overreach.” The ICC is an international court that has the authority to prosecute cases including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

The court called the latest sanctions “a flagrant attack” on its independence and impartiality.

“They constitute also an affront against… the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world,” it added.

The US State Department said Gillou was being punished for approving arrest warrants for Nethanyahu and Gallant. It stated that Khan and Niang were both accountable for “illegitimate actions against Israel” and that Prost, the Canadian judge, had been approved to conduct an investigation against US forces in Afghanistan.

The four officials are prohibited from using or profiting from any assets or properties they own in the United States as a result of the penalty. This most recent wave of sanctions follows earlier this year when the US placed comparable limitations on four other judges and the ICC’s head prosecutor, Karim Khan KC.

In the past, the UN’s human rights chief called on the US to lift its sanctions against the four judges, claiming that the ruling was in direct opposition to “respect for the rule of law.” Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council and a vocal opponent of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, was also sanctioned by the US in July.

Rubio justified the action by pointing to Albanese’s backing of the ICC and her involvement in the court’s rulings to bring charges against Israeli or US citizens. In the past, the UN’s human rights chief called on the US to lift its sanctions against the four judges, claiming that the ruling was in direct opposition to “respect for the rule of law.”

Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council and a vocal opponent of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, was also sanctioned by the US in July.

Rubio justified the action by pointing to Albanese’s backing of the ICC and her involvement in the court’s rulings to bring charges against Israeli or US citizens.