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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday that the U.S. is imposing sanctions on two key figures in the International Criminal Court (ICC), including a prosecutor who has led charges against top Israeli government officials like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S. is sanctioning ICC President Tomoko Akane, from Japan, and ICC prosecutor Abdoulaye Seye, of Senegal, Rubio announced, as part of the U.S.’s assault on the international tribunal.
Rubio did not give specific reasons as to why those individuals have been chosen, but said that they have “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.”
In his statement, Rubio claims the sanctions are about protecting U.S. sovereignty. Indeed, the U.S. has long stood in opposition to the ICC as the court has sought, amid its flaws, to hold to account war criminals and genocidaires across the world.
However, the sanctions also appear targeted at punishing those who have prosecuted Israeli officials. Seye, a senior trial attorney, was on the team of prosecutors who sought an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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Israeli media also claims that Seye has led prosecution efforts against other Israeli officials, including an arrest warrant application filed against Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich earlier this year, Middle East Eye reported. The claims of Seye’s involvement in Smotrich’s or any other case have not been substantiated by U.S. outlets.
President Donald Trump has previously openly said that the U.S. is going after the ICC in part to “defend” Israel.
Rubio “is not trying to defend me. He’s trying to defend Bibi and various other people,” Trump said in July, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. “There are many people that shouldn’t be looked at that way. But there is no indication that I’m one of them at this moment.”
The U.S. has also imposed sanctions — which are ruinous due to the U.S.’s power over the global banking system — on at least 11 ICC officials. These sanctions have been placed on ICC officials who have been involved in prosecution of Israeli officials as well as those who have investigated members of the U.S. forces for crimes in Afghanistan.
The sanctions have been issued under Trump’s executive order issued in February 2025. However, this executive order as well as sanctions against a slate of figures like UN special rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese are facing lawsuits by human rights groups.
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