Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced the United States has imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides as well.
Pompeo accused the court of “illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction.” The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court – nor is the State of Israel — and therefore neither are subject to its actions.
(courtesy, BBC)
This past June, President Donald Trump issued an executive order enabling the US to block the assets of ICC employees. “Today we take the next step because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly,” Pompeo said.
The move comes in response to the continued ICC investigation into US soldiers on allegations of suspected war crimes in Afghanistan.
Included among the sanctions is a freeze on assets held in the US, or subject to US law, belonging to Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of the ICC’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division. “Individuals and entities that continue to materially support those individuals risk exposure to sanctions as well,” Pompeo said.
The US State Department has also restricted the issuance of visas for ICC staff involved in “efforts to investigate US personnel”.
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Bensouda has also been mulling the possibility of launching a similar war crimes probe against the State of Israel, and potentially against Hamas, for incidents that have taken place in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza.
A travel ban had previously been imposed by the United States against Bensouda and other employees of the ICC in response to the Court’s investigation into claims of torture and accusations of other crimes allegedly carried out by Americans in Afghanistan.