By Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch
HAGUE (Reuters) – International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is the first person to be hit with economic and travel sanctions authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump that target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of U.S. citizens or U.S. allies, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Khan, who is British, was named on Friday in an annex – not yet made public – to an executive order signed by Trump a day earlier, a senior ICC official and another source, both briefed by U.S. government officials, told Reuters. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential matter.
The sanctions include freezing of U.S. assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.
The order directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in consultation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit a report within 60 days naming people who should be sanctioned.
The ICC on Friday condemned the sanctions, pledging to stand by its staff and “continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it.” Court officials met in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions.
The International Criminal Court, which opened in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the U.N. Security Council.
Dozens of countries warned on Friday that the U.S. sanctions could “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law.”
“Sanctions would severely undermine all situations currently under investigation as the Court may have to close its field offices,” the 79 countries – who make up about two-thirds of the court’s members – said in a statement.
U.N. DEAL WITH U.S.
Under an agreement between the United Nations and Washington, Khan should be able to regularly travel to New York to brief the U.N. Security Council on cases it had referred to the court in The Hague. The Security Council has referred the situations in Libya and Sudan’s Darfur region to the ICC.
“We trust that any restrictions taken against individuals would be implemented consistently with the host country’s obligations under the U.N. Headquarters agreement,” deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday.
Khan was most recently in New York last week to brief the Security Council on Sudan.
“International criminal law is an essential element to fighting impunity, which is unfortunately widespread,” Haq said. “The International Criminal Court is its essential element, and it must be allowed to work in full independence.”
Trump’s move on Thursday – repeating action he took during his first term – coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who – along with his former defense minister and a leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas – is wanted by the ICC over the war in the Gaza.
During a visit to the U.S. Congress on Friday, Netanyahu praised Trump’s move, describing the court as a “scandalous” organization “that threatens the right of all democracies to defend themselves.”
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch at The Hague; Writing and additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Rosalba O’Brien)
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