The Trump administration has imposed sweeping new sanctions on the International Criminal Court as part of its campaign to dismantle the tribunal that the U.S. believes has become politicized and attempted to unfairly and illegally prosecute Americans and Israelis on war crimes charges.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions Friday, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African prosecutor Navi Pillay, a former judge at the ICC and other international courts. Trump has coveted that prize for himself. The move, however, long predated the Nobel Prize announcement.
“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate against us,” Rubio said in a video address posted to social media. “The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC.”
Starting next April, it will be prohibited for any US citizens, companies, or organizations to conduct business with the ICC. Organizations outside the US that collaborate with the court also face the threat of sanctions.
One possible consequence is that ICC staff salaries can no longer be paid. “The ICC holds its bank account with ABN Amro,” says De Hoon. “It is highly questionable whether the bank can circumvent these sanctions.”
Once the sanctions take effect, staff members will no longer be able to use US-made software. For instance, they would be unable to send emails to one another via Microsoft, and documents—such as investigative materials—could not be stored on US servers.
Previous sanctions imposed by the US government applied only to individual prosecutors and judges; now, the court itself is being targeted as an institution. The ICC had already begun migrating its IT systems in response to those earlier sanctions, but the progress of this process remains unclear. “These systems are so complex that I wonder if it can be done by April,” says De Hoon. International organizations
Hopefully this bullshit tactic moves us closer to a post american internet and corporate action to reduce reliance on US tech
US tech has been thinly disguised spware for a long time, now I think we can upgrade that to ransomware.
Yeah, I’m watching this as an American and it just seems profoundly stupid. Really? The court? The one that tries war crimes? That they weren’t listening to anyway?
What a great opportunity to remind anyone that no matter how good the service, you shouldn’t trust it because it’s American. This doesn’t exactly sell America’s war adventurism either. I’m hopeful that the US acting out against this court it never listened to will wake some people up.
If there is any justice, some of the people doing this will sit before that court.
Quick, somebody take that couch sitting photo of Marco Rubio and put him in the court in Photoshop.
AP should not be printing the regime’s lies - the US does not believe the ICC has become politicized.
The republican regime wants to continue committing and supporting crimes against humanity and they don’t want to be treated like the criminals they are.
The best and kindest thing I can say about the USA is that they are being extremely annoying.
Sounds like someone is afraid of being tried for crimes against humanity. And by someone I mean trump.
Donald Trump really wants to commit war crimes, huh.
Such astonishing derangement. Proof again Trump is but a running dog of Putin.
Please. By all means, some entity larger than the local militia (lol) needs to be standing up against this shithole country
What a fucking baby.
All because a former member got the Nobel Peace Prize.
Maybe the EU could finally make some progress on the implementation of the blocking statute. If it will be effective has to be seen, but at least it is a show of support for internation law and justice.
Criminals avoiding judgement.
wtf.
