A federal judge in the United States has halted the enforcement of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that targeted individuals working with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Reuters reported.
The ruling, delivered Friday by US District Judge Nancy Torresen, follows a legal challenge brought in April by two human rights advocates. The plaintiffs contested the President’s February 6 executive order, which authorized economic and travel sanctions against those assisting ICC investigations involving US citizens or its allies, including Israel.
In her decision, Judge Torresen found the executive order to be in violation of constitutional protections of free speech. “The executive order appears to restrict substantially more speech than necessary to further that end,” she wrote. “The executive order broadly prohibits any speech-based services that benefit the prosecutor, regardless of whether those beneficial services relate to an ICC investigation of the United States, Israel, or another US ally.”
Under the order, sanctions were imposed on British ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who was also added to the US Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned individuals through its Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Later, Trump also sanctioned four ICC judges, a decision made in retaliation for the ICC's issuance of an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a prior decision to investigate alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
The ICC's governing body, representing its 125 member states, condemned the US government's decision, saying, "These... are regrettable attempts to impede the Court and its personnel in the exercise of their independent judicial functions."