Japan, European governments, and the United Nations rallied behind the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the United States sanctioned ICC President Tomoko Akane.
The court denounced the move as a “flagrant attack” on judicial independence.
Washington imposed sanctions Tuesday on Akane, a Japanese judge, and ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, barring them from entering the United States and conducting transactions through the U.S. financial system, according to Agence France-Presse.
“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the ICC said in a statement.
“Such measures targeting judges, prosecutors and staff… undermine the rule of law,” the court added.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for the sanctions to be lifted.
“Unacceptable new sanctions imposed by the USA against the International Criminal Court’s President and a prosecution staff member must be lifted,” Turk said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in separate statements on X that the court “must be able to act independently and without external pressure.”
Germany’s foreign ministry said the ICC’s independence was “of central importance,” while the Netherlands, which hosts the court in The Hague, also opposed the sanctions.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said “France condemns all threats and coercive measures against the court.”
Spain described the ICC as “the cornerstone of the international criminal justice system.”
Japan also objected to the sanctions against Akane, saying it had “consistently supported the ICC… in its efforts to prosecute and punish the most serious crimes of concern to the international community and to uphold the rule of law.”
Japan is the ICC’s biggest financial contributor and a close U.S. ally. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Akane and Seye had “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.”
“The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” Rubio said.
“We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty,” he added.
The Trump administration has previously sanctioned ICC officials, largely in response to the court’s investigations involving Israel, a U.S. ally.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the genocide in Gaza. Netanyahu welcomed the latest U.S. sanctions and called the ICC “a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law.”
Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities and acts as a court of last resort when national legal systems are unable to adequately pursue accountability.
The United States signed the Rome Statute but never ratified it. Israel, Russia, and China are also not ICC members.
In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. Moscow later issued arrest warrants for senior court officials, including Akane.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in March 2025 over alleged crimes against humanity linked to his anti-drug campaign; he was later transferred to ICC custody in The Hague.
