Sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, following the court's morally bankrupt and legally baseless arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, are having a serious impact, according to new reporting.
As a result of American sanctions, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan has "lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen," and both "Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members" are banned from entering the United States.
The sanctions also "[threaten] any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with 'financial, material, or technological support,'" causing many companies and organizations to end their cooperation with the ICC.
AIPAC has lobbied Congress to pass ICC sanctions legislation — the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act — and applauded the Trump administration for imposing sanctions on ICC officials who target for prosecution Americans and our democratic allies.
Meanwhile, Khan is also under investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting other ICC staff, and may have sought the arrest warrants against Israel's leaders to shield himself from the accusations. You can read and share The Wall Street Journal's shocking exposé on Khan here.
The Journal reports that the arrest warrants "shored up support for Khan among anti-Israel ICC nations that would likely back Khan if the [sexual assault] allegations [against him] ever became public, according to court officials."
The ICC’s outrageous actions against Israel — the first against the leaders of a democratic country — set a dangerous precedent that the court may again arbitrarily expand its jurisdiction to prosecute Western nationsThe United States must continue to stand with Israel and push back against the illegitimate and baseless effort by the ICC to target our democratic ally.
I note with deep regret the issuance by the United States of an Executive Order seeking to impose sanctions on the officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC, Court), harm the Court’s independence and its impartiality and deprive millions of innocent victims of atrocities of justice and hope.
The ICC is a judicial body which performs functions that align with the interests of the international community by enforcing and promoting universally recognised rules of international law, including the law of armed conflicts and human rights law.
As atrocities continue to plague the globe affecting the lives of millions of innocent children, women and men, the Court has become indispensable. It represents the most significant legacy of the immense suffering inflicted on civilians by the world wars, the Holocaust, genocides, violence and persecutions. When most of the States of the world gathered to draft the Rome Statute, they made the dream of many women and men come true. Today, the ICC is dealing with proceedings arising from different Situations across the world, in strict adherence to the provisions of the Rome Statute.
The announced Executive Order is only the latest in a series of unprecedented and escalatory attacks aiming to undermine the Court’s ability to administer justice in all Situations. Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims.
The ICC and its officials from all over the world realise daily its judicial mandate to determine whether certain individual conducts, within its legitimate jurisdiction, give rise to responsibility for international crimes. We firmly reject any attempt to influence the independence and the impartiality of the Court or to politicise our judicial function. We have and always will comply only with the law, under all circumstances.
The ICC stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all Situations before it, in the sole interest of human dignity. I call upon all those who share the values enshrined in the Statute to stand united in the Court’s defence: our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world.
I'm copying both sides opinions and justifications of the same problem, to show the two very different approaches plus the actual steps taken by the US administration, up to you to judge who's legal, correct and fair, by the way the AIPAK message I got by mid May, the ICC president was published by early Feb. it is still an ongoing scandal.
As always, my many and deep thanks to all.
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