US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was imposing sanctions on Akane, a Japanese judge who is president of the ICC, and Seye, a Senegalese national, under a Trump executive order issued last year authorizing sanctions against the court.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government ⁠has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” Rubio said in a statement.

The ICC condemned the sanctions, saying the measures undermine the rule of law.

“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the ICC said.

Seye is a senior trial lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, and has been nominated for election as an ICC judge.

The latest US sanctions have also put Washington at odds with allies in Europe.

Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on X that the Netherlands, which hosts the court, disapproved of the latest US sanctions and had invited Akane to “discuss our continued support.”

“International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates,” Berendsen wrote.

Akane warned in December that US sanctions would “rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence”.

The United States imposed targeted sanctions last year on several ICC officials, including prosecutors and judges, citing the court’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a past probe into US troops in Afghanistan.

The sanctions freeze any US assets held by the targeted individuals and essentially cut them off from the US financial system, with which almost all internationally operating banks have close ties.

The US Treasury Department also issued a general license Tuesday authorizing the wind-down of transactions involving Akane and Seye through September 17.

Defending Netanyahu

Three ICC judges sued Trump and his administration in June over the sanctions, arguing that the measures were unlawful.

Advocacy groups, in two separate lawsuits, have said the US campaign infringes on the constitutional rights of organizations working with the court to seek justice for atrocities around the world.

Rubio said last month that the administration would step up efforts to undermine the ICC, including a diplomatic campaign aimed at persuading other countries to quit the institution, a call that at least five countries have already heeded.

Rubio argued that the court posed a threat to US personnel carrying out Trump’s hardline immigration policies or strikes on boats accused of carrying drugs, as well as other US service members.

Trump has said the campaign was aimed at defending Netanyahu and others from prosecution, rather than Trump himself.

The United States has never been a member of the court.

The ICC asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself.

However, the ICC statute also gives the court the power to prosecute atrocity crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.