U.S. sanctions ICC chief Tomoko Akane of Japan

The United States on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) imposed sanctions against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane of Japan and another senior official as part of its campaign against the body that it accuses of being “politicized.”

Also read | ICC is at a crossroads

Washington additionally slapped sanctions on ICC Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal in the Trump administration’s latest salvo against The Hague-based court.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an official note, without providing examples.

The ICC retorted Tuesday (August 18), saying the U.S. sanctions “undermine the rule of law.”

“When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk,” the court said in an official note.

Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities and acts as a last resort when countries do not have adequate legal systems to ensure accountability.

The United States, which is not a party to the international treaty that established the ICC, has already imposed sanctions against several of the court’s office-holders.

The measures bar them from entering the United States and from carrying out transactions in the U.S. financial system.

It is largely a response to ICC investigations targeting Israel, a U.S. ally. In 2024, the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.

In an X post Tuesday evening (August 18), Mr. Netanyahu applauded the U.S. sanctions and called the ICC “a kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law.”

The Netherlands, where the ICC is based in The Hague, “disapproves of the latest sanctions against officials and staff of the ICC,” Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen wrote in an X post.

“International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates,” he added.

Victims of war crimes

Last month, Washington launched a major diplomatic offensive against the ICC, accusing it of “threatening” Americans and calling on partners to withdraw from the body — a move already unveiled by Chad and Venezuela. It have aligned with the United States since the capture and ouster of leaderNicolas Maduro.

The ICC expressed concern over those withdrawals, asserting that such countries risked undermining the collective pursuit of justice.

The United States signed the Rome Statute establishing the ICC but never ratified the treaty. Israel and Russia are not ICC members either.

“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. We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty,” Rubio’s statement said.

Last week, four human rights groups sued U.S. President Donald Trump in a New York court over his sanctions targeting the ICC, saying the measures block victims of war crimes from pursuing justice.

The sanctions are “just the latest example of the Trump administration’s utter contempt for international law and a naked attempt to shield American and Israeli officials implicated in serious crimes from justice,” HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director Balkees Jarrah said in an official note.

In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to issue its own arrest warrants for senior court office-holders.