US Sanctions ICC President Tomoko Akane and Senior Official Abdoulaye Seye

Washington, MINA – The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane and senior official Abdoulaye Seye, the latest move in the Trump administration’s campaign against the court, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

Akane, a Japanese national who has served as ICC president since 2024, and Seye, a Senegalese national, were added to the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List pursuant to Executive Order 14203, which President Donald Trump signed on Feb. 6, 2025.

The sanctions freeze any US assets held by the two officials and prohibit Americans and US entities from conducting transactions with them.

The move intensifies Washington’s pressure on the ICC following the court’s issuance of arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Akane and Seye of “directly” engaging in ICC efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction”.

He stated that the administration’s campaign to “dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to national sovereignty will be sweeping,” and expressed expectations that more countries would join by ending their “funding and participation in this politicized and unaccountable court”.

The ICC responded by condemning the sanctions, stating that the measures undermine the rule of law and that “when judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk”.

Akane has previously criticized the sanctions, telling the court’s Assembly of States Parties in December that “we will never accept any kind of pressures from anyone on issues of interpretation of the statutory framework and adjudication of cases,” affirming that the court’s “independence and impartiality are our polar stars and remain unaffected”.[]

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)