Trump sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutor halt tribunal’s work

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor British barrister Karim Khan has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen, since US president Donald Trump slapped sanctions on him in February.

Hurdles facing court staff since Mr Trump’s intervention include the Hague-based court’s American staffers being told that if they travel to the US they risk arrest, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights advocates.

Some non-governmental organisations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one will not even reply to emails from court officials.

The sanctions will “prevent victims from getting access to justice”, Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said.

Mr Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant in November.

Judges found there was reason to believe that the pair may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny.

Staffers and allies of the ICC said the sanctions had made it increasingly difficult for the tribunal to conduct basic tasks, let alone seek justice for victims of war crimes or genocide.

A spokesperson for the ICC and chief prosecutor Mr Khan declined to comment.

Speaking in February, ICC president Judge Tomoko Akane said the sanctions “constitute serious attacks against the court’s states parties, the rule of law-based international order and millions of victims”.

The February order bans Mr Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members from entering the United States.

It also threatens any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Mr Khan with “financial, material, or technological support”.

The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations, not just the one into Israel’s leaders.

The ICC, for example, had been investigating atrocities in Sudan and had issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir on charges that include genocide.

That investigation has ground to a halt even as reports mount of new atrocities in Sudan, according to a lawyer representing an ICC prosecutor who is fighting the sanctions in US courts.

The prosecutor, Eric Iverson, filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions.

American staffers at the organisation have been warned by its lawyers that they risk arrest if they return home to visit family, according to ICC officials. Six senior officials have left the court over concerns about sanctions.

One reason the the court has been hamstrung is that it relies heavily on contractors and non-governmental organisations. These businesses and groups have curtailed work on behalf of the court because they are concerned about being targeted by US authorities, according to current and former ICC staffers.

Microsoft, for example, cancelled Mr Khan’s email address, forcing the prosecutor to move to Proton Mail, a Swiss email provider, ICC staffers said. His bank accounts in the UK have been blocked.

Staffers at a non-governmental organisation that plays an integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses said the group had transferred money out of US bank accounts because they feared it might be seized by the Trump administration.

Senior leadership at two other US-based human rights organisations told The Associated Press that their groups had stopped working with the ICC.

The cumulative effect of such actions had led ICC staffers to openly wonder whether the organisation could survive the Trump administration, according to ICC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

One such official said: “It’s hard to see how the court makes it through the next four years.”