Ankara: The US sanctioned four International Criminal Court (ICC) officials Wednesday, including a judge who authorized the arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Nicolas Yann Guillou, Nazhat Shameem Khan, Mame Mandiaye Niang, and Kimberly Prost to the Specially Designated Nationals list.
According to Anadolu Agency, the State Department stated that Guillou was sanctioned for authorizing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, while Prost faced penalties for approving investigations into US personnel in Afghanistan. Guillou, a French jurist, serves on the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I that issued the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Deputy prosecutors Khan and Niang were designated for “continuing to support illegitimate ICC actions against Israel,” including upholding the warrants targeting Israeli leadership since assuming prosecutor office leadership. The State Department mentioned that these sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 14203, targeting “malign efforts by the ICC” and aiming to impose consequences on those engaged in “transgressions against the United States and Israel.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the four officials and the court for attempting to ‘investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of either nation.’ In a statement, Rubio asserted that the United States opposes the ICC’s “politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach,” labeling the court a national security threat to Washington and Tel Aviv.
All property and interests of the sanctioned individuals in the US or controlled by US persons are now blocked, and entities owned 50% or more by blocked persons are also sanctioned. OFAC published a General License authorizing the winding down of existing transactions with sanctioned individuals until 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401GMT) on Sept. 19, with payments required to be made into blocked interest-bearing accounts in the US, preventing sanctioned individuals from accessing funds.
The sanctions come amid escalating tensions between the US and the ICC, which Washington has not joined. In February, the Trump administration sanctioned the ICC and Prosecutor Karim Khan, accusing the court of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” Meanwhile, Israel has been implicated in the deaths of over 62,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, and faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the enclave.