U.S. Imposes Sanctions on International Criminal Court Leadership Over Non-Member Jurisdiction

The Trump administration has sanctioned two top International Criminal Court officials, escalating an executive campaign to dismantle the international body over its efforts to investigate non-member state personnel, including American troops in Afghanistan and senior Israeli leadership in Gaza.

In announcing the sanctions against ICC President Tomoko Akane of Japan and the ICC’s senior trial lawyer, Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court “corrupt and fatally politicized.”

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” Rubio said in a statement issued by the U.S. Department of State, adding that the court “has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.”

The measures were instituted under Executive Order authority established in February 2025, which authorizes the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to block all U.S.-located property and asset interests of designated ICC personnel. The sanctions freeze assets held by Akane and Seye within U.S. jurisdictions and prohibit U.S. citizens, financial institutions, and foreign entities conducting U.S. dollar transactions from engaging in financial dealings with the officials.

Rubio stated that the administration is pursuing a broader campaign to dismantle what it views as a threat to U.S. national sovereignty, calling on partner nations to cease funding and participation in the tribunal. The administration maintains that the Rome Statute does not grant the Hague-based court authority over military personnel or elected leaders from nations that are not statutory parties to the court, including the United States and Israel.

The ICC said the Trump administration’s latest sanctions “undermine the rule of law,” adding that they amount to “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution.”

The ICC maintains that its statutory mandate grants jurisdiction over crimes alleged to have occurred on the territory of member states, regardless of the nationality of the accused perpetrators. Under the Rome Statute, the court claims territorial jurisdiction over qualifying offenses—including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression—committed in Afghanistan and Palestine, which are both ratified state parties.

<img src="https://nile1.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/benjamin-netanyahu-6-15.png" alt="Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu” width=”1200″ height=”675″ />

The sanctions follow the tribunal’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding actions in Gaza, alongside long-standing investigations into U.S. military and intelligence personnel for activities in Afghanistan. Under federal statutory authority outlined in the American Service-Members’ Protection Act of 2002, U.S. law strictly limits federal cooperation with ICC actions against protected personnel and authorizes presidential measures to protect covered foreign allies from ICC detention or prosecution.