The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday denounced the latest US sanctions against two of its judges over its case involving Israel, saying they were a "flagrant attack" on the court’s independence.
"Such measures targeting judges and prosecutors who were elected by the States Parties 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 a statement quoted by Reuters.
The statement came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against two ICC judges over their participation in the court’s targeting of Israel.
"These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel's consent, including voting with the majority in favor of the ICC's ruling against Israel's appeal on December 15," Rubio said.
He added, "The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which sets a dangerous precedent for all nations. We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC's jurisdiction."
"Our message to the Court has been clear: the United States and Israel are not party to the Rome Statute and therefore reject the ICC's jurisdiction. We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC's lawfare and overreach," Rubio stated.
Just last week, an American official told Reuters that the US has asked the ICC to drop its probes of Israeli leaders over the Gaza war and to formally close its long-running Afghanistan file concerning American personnel. Failure to do so, the source said, could lead to further punitive measures targeting additional ICC figures and potentially the court as an institution.
On Monday, the ICC rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court's probe into its conduct of the Gaza war.
The judges refused to overturn an earlier decision allowing the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction to include events following Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The ruling means the investigation will continue, and the arrest warrants issued last year for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant remain in effect.