The United States announces sanctions on the president and trial lawyers of the International Criminal Court

U.S. Secretary of State Rubio announced on Tuesday (August 18) that the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a senior trial lawyer. The move is the latest escalation in a series of attacks on the international body by the Trump administration.

The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 and is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. It is responsible for prosecuting war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The United States is not a member of the court.

Rubio said that the United States imposed sanctions on the President of the International Criminal Court, Japanese judge Tomoko Akane, and the court's Senegalese trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, based on the authorization of an executive order signed by President Trump.

He said these individuals were directly involved in the ICC's actions to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute officials whose governments did not accept the court's jurisdiction.

Rubio wrote on the social platform X on Tuesday that the move is part of Washington's determined mission to protect Americans from this "fake court."

After the United States imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court, Tomoko Akane, Germany expressed support for the judge on Wednesday (August 19) and called for the protection of the institution.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said: "We firmly support the International Criminal Court and its President Tomoko Akagen. It is vital to defend and protect the International Criminal Court as an independent institution."

The ICC maintains that it only exercises jurisdiction when member states are unable or unwilling to pursue atrocities themselves. However, the court's statute also gives it the power to prosecute nationals of non-member states who commit atrocities on the territory of a member state.

Rubio believes the ICC poses a threat to U.S. personnel and other U.S. military personnel who implement President Trump's hard-line immigration policies or conduct "counternarcotics" strikes against ships in international waters.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the Trump administration's position has always been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and heavily politicized supranational court that maliciously abuses its powers and exceeds the scope of its authorization; the United States will not tolerate its violation of national sovereignty.

Last year, the United States imposed sanctions on several officials of the International Criminal Court after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galante over the Gaza war.

Last month, Rubio said the Trump administration would step up efforts to weaken the ICC, including launching a diplomatic offensive aimed at persuading other countries to withdraw from the court. Countries such as Chad and Venezuela have responded to the US call and withdrawn from the International Criminal Court.

Trump has said that the U.S. offensive is to protect allies Netanyahu and others from prosecution, rather than to worry about himself.

In June this year, three International Criminal Court judges sued the Trump administration, saying the sanctions were illegal; last week, four human rights organizations also filed a lawsuit, arguing that Trump's measures deprive victims of war crimes from accessing justice.

Tuesday's sanctions ban Tomoko Akane and Sai from entering the United States and prohibiting them from trading within the U.S. financial system.

The International Criminal Court said on Tuesday it would not back down and supported all its staff. The court rejected Washington's approach, saying "measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff who work to fulfill the mandate assigned to the International Criminal Court by States undermine the rule of law." The court said in a statement that when judicial workers are threatened for practicing the law, it is the international legal order itself that is put at risk.

As far as public cases are concerned, only two countries in the world have taken national-level punitive measures against individual International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, one is the United States and the other is Russia.

The United States used administrative sanctions, and Russia used criminal prosecution.

On March 17, 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin on Russia's suspicion of illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. Three days later, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a case against ICC prosecutor, British lawyer Karim Khan and the judge involved in issuing the arrest warrant, accusing them of pursuing criminal responsibility for people who knew they were innocent.

In December 2025, the Moscow City Court sentenced Karim Khan in absentia to 15 years in prison, and eight other ICC judges and officials were sentenced to three years and six months to 15 years in prison, including the current president Tomoko Akane, who was sanctioned by the United States on Tuesday. Russia also put nine people on its wanted list.

These judgments are unenforceable outside Russia and will not be assisted by the more than 120 parties to the Rome Statute.