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The Donald Trump administration imposed sanctions on four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges on Thursday, freezing U.S.-based assets and restricting entry to the United States in response to the court's investigations into alleged war crimes involving Israeli officials and U.S. personnel.
The measures, criticized by the ICC and some human rights organizations as potentially undermining judicial independence, mark the latest development in ongoing U.S. tensions with the global tribunal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the sanctions target judges Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin), Beti Hohler (Slovenia), Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza (Peru), and Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda) for their roles in authorizing ICC probes into U.S. allies.
Alapini-Gansou and Hohler approved arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant related to alleged actions in Gaza. At the same time, Ibáñez Carranza and Bossa oversaw investigations into U.S. military conduct in Afghanistan.
The sanctions were enacted under Trump's executive order on Feb. 6 on imposing sanctions against ICC, which was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute ratified by 125 nations and operated independently to address war crimes and genocide.
The United States participated in drafting the treaty but never ratified it, citing sovereignty concerns. Previous administrations adopted varying stances.
U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the statute in 2000 without seeking ratification, while President George Bush signed the 2002 American Servicemembers' Protection Act, authorizing measures to protect U.S. personnel from ICC jurisdiction. The Joe Biden administration reversed Trump's 2020 sanctions against ICC prosecutors in 2021, and Trump imposed new sanctions in 2025.
The ICC described the sanctions as "unprecedented challenges" to its mandate, stating its work reflects "the legacy of global efforts to address mass atrocities." Legal analysts, including scholars from the Brookings Institution, noted the sanctions might affect perceptions of U.S. engagement with multilateral institutions.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on April 11, challenging the sanctions, which it alleged restrict free speech by limiting advocacy work before the court. ICC operations have faced logistical disruptions, including frozen prosecutor accounts and preemptive salary payments to staff amid concerns about U.S. technology withdrawals.