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Four additional International Criminal Court (ICC) officials are facing U.S. sanctions over actions targeting Americans and Israelis. The State Department cited President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,” as its reasoning for issuing the sanctions.
Those named are ICC Judge Kimberly Prost (Canada), ICC Judge Nicolas Yann Guillou (France), and ICC Deputy Prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan (Fiji) and Mame Mandiaye Niang (Senegal).
“These individuals are foreign persons who directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of either nation,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
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While neither the U.S. nor Israel are members of the ICC, the individuals at the center of the sanctions have taken actions against both nations in their official capacities. According to the State Department, Prost ruled to authorize an investigation of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, while Guillou ruled to authorize the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Meanwhile, Khan and Niang are subject to the sanctions “continuing to support illegitimate ICC actions against Israel,” including the arrest warrants, since assuming leadership of the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor in May.
“The [ICC] continues to disregard national sovereignty and facilitate lawfare through efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute American and Israeli nationals,” Rubio wrote on X announcing the sanctions. “In response, I am sanctioning four additional ICC officials. We will continue to hold accountable those responsible for the ICC’s morally bankrupt and legally baseless actions against Americans and Israelis.”
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In response to a request for comment, the ICC pointed Fox News Digital to a public statement.
The ICC said it “deplores the announcement of new designations for sanctions by the U.S. administration.”
“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all regions. They constitute also an affront against the Court’s States Parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world,” the ICC’s statement read.
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The State Department said that the sanctions are meant to “impose tangible and significant consequences” against Prost, Guillou, Khan and Niang. Their U.S. assets have been frozen, and U.S. persons and businesses are prohibited from dealing with them. This also applies to companies in which they hold at least 50 percent ownership. Additionally, the sanctions cover workarounds, such as indirect transactions.
In February, Trump signed an executive order in which he claimed that the ICC had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” The order also stated that the U.S. rejects any ICC actions against it or its allies who have “not consented to ICC jurisdiction.” The order lists the types of sanctions that can be imposed, many of which are now being applied to Prost, Guillou, Khan and Niang.
