ICC judges sue Trump, administration in NYC over punitive sanctions

Three International Criminal Court (ICC) judges are suing Donald Trump and his administration in New York. The legal action concerns the Trump regime’s punitive sanctions against ICC figures for issuing arrest warrants for wanted Israeli war criminals Benjamin Netanyahu and Yo’av Gallant.

The judges say that the sanctions are an attempt to bypass the judicial process by punishing and coercing ICC judges:

The Sanctions Regime … is designed to exert extra-judicial pressure on these judges and their colleagues on the ICC bench by targeting their financial and other personal interests, with the objective of punishing them for prior judicial decisions and coercing them into prioritising their private interests over ⁠deciding cases on the basis of the law and facts.

Being subjected to such sanctions under IEEPA is tantamount to the financial death penalty. Due to the sanctions, Judges Prost, Bossa, and Alapini-Gansou are no longer able, among other ⁠things, to use credit cards; access banking services; use common online platforms, such as Amazon and Google; book travel; and in some cases, obtain health insurance.

ICC — ‘National emergency’

The case has been lodged with the US District Court for New York’s Southern District. It names Trump, the US Treasury and a number of senior US officials. Also cited is Trump’s ‘executive order’ declaring a national state of emergency after the ICC announced investigations into war crimes committed by US-Israeli settlers.

The US recently lost legal action brought by the family of UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese, who has also been sanctioned. Her daughter and husband are US citizens. However, an appeal court then allowed Trump to reimpose the sanctions while it decides the government’s appeal against the decision.

Featured image via InternationaCriminalCourt