The Trump administration said Wednesday it was sanctioning a Canadian judge on the International Criminal Court, along with three other jurists and prosecutors engaged in what the U.S. calls “lawfare” against Americans and Israelis.
The U.S. State Department said Kimberly Prost, a Canadian who has served on the court since 2018, was sanctioned for ruling to authorize the ICC’s investigation into U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan.
An ICC judge from France and two deputy prosecutors from Fiji and Senegal were also sanctioned in connection with the ICC’s investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
The French jurist, Nicolas Guillou, authorized the arrest warrants issued last year against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the ICC “continues to disregard national sovereignty and facilitate lawfare through efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute American and Israeli nationals.”
“We will continue to hold accountable those responsible for the ICC’s morally bankrupt and legally baseless actions against Americans and Israelis,” he said.
The U.S. and Israel are not signatories to the ICC and do not recognize its authority. Israel has accused the ICC, which also issued arrest warrants against senior Hamas officials last year, of antisemitism.
In 2020, Prost and her fellow jurists on an ICC appeals bench authorized an investigation into crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan since 2003.
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The ruling says the investigation will look into alleged war crimes committed by “the armed forces of the United States of America” and the CIA, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Taliban and Afghan security forces.
The sanctions announced Wednesday block the ICC officials from financial transactions and property owned in the U.S.
Prost joins a growing list of ICC judges that have been hit with similar actions. Other jurists involved in authorizing the Afghanistan investigation were sanctioned by the U.S. in June.
U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February that declared the ICC’s actions against the U.S. and Israel a national security threat worthy of a national emergency.
It directed Rubio to identify individuals involved in those investigations and to impose “tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions.”
The order noted Congress passed legislation in 2002 to protect U.S. officials and military personnel from criminal prosecution by international courts that the U.S. is not a signatory to.
That law was enacted less than a year after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The ICC has condemned the actions of the Trump administration, calling them an attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution.
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Canadian judge among 4 ICC officials sanctioned by U.S. over ‘lawfare’
