U.S. sanctions International Criminal Court, threatens to dismantle it

By Matthew Dalton, Vera Bergengruen and Laurence Norman PARIS -- The Trump administration announced sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, threatening to dismantle the institution after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement comes on the day that Navi Pillay, a South African former ICC judge, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. S. financial system and prohibiting it from conducting transactions in dollars.

Western banks often refuse to deal at all with sanctioned entities, because of the difficulty of separating their dollar trades from transactions in other major currencies. S. citizens despite Washington never having joined it. S.

concerns. S. S. citizens.

, Israel and Russia. Reining in that authority, however, would likely require the court's member states to amend the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC. The statute allows the court to prosecute nonmember state nationals if they commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on the territory of member states. The court's backers consider that provision a fundamental principle of international criminal law.

The ICC has used that authority to prosecute Netanyahu for alleged war crimes on Palestinian territory, which is considered a court member state, and Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged crimes in Ukraine. S. military in Afghanistan. Washington informed European capitals of the decision on Thursday.

S. allies that belong to the court. "We expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American servicemembers for their defense, to rein in this rogue court," he said. S.

sanctions. "The court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes," said ICC President Tomoko Akane. The ICC, based in The Hague, is heir to the Nuremberg tribunals that prosecuted Nazi war criminals after World War II and special courts that held trials after the Yugoslav wars and the Rwandan genocide. , China, India and Russia -- aren't members.

S. already has sanctioned a number of ICC officials. They include former Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, whom the ICC ousted in July over sexual-assault allegations against him; Akane and several other judges; the court's two deputy prosecutors; and the lead prosecutor in the case against Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. Khan has denied any sexual misconduct.

The sanctions announced Friday are far more punitive, applying to the institution as a whole. The court has been bracing for the move for months. It has paid employees through the end of the year and switched away from Microsoft to a German open source software system. The Dutch government, which hosts the ICC, and other court member states have vowed to defend the institution.

S. decision "deeply regrettable" and pledged to work with the ICC to ensure it continues to operate effectively. Some officials have suggested the EU could use a so-called blocking statute to prevent EU-based banks or businesses from complying with the sanctions. The EU said it stands ready "to take any necessary measures" to allow the court to keep working.

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