US politicians are threatening to sanction court docket officers over the arrest warrant towards Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president of the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) has warned that assaults on the tribunal, which have come largely from Washington and Moscow, “jeopardise its very existence”.
Addressing ICC members in The Hague at an annual convention on Monday, ICC President Tomoko Akane mentioned the court docket confronted “coercive measures, threats, strain and acts of sabotage” with out naming the US and Russia.
The court docket has been going through rebukes from the 2 international locations after issuing arrest warrants for Israeli and Russian officers over wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
“The court docket is being threatened with draconian financial sanctions by one other everlasting member of the Safety Council as if it was a terrorist organisation,” Akane mentioned in her handle.
US politicians have been threatening to impose sanctions on ICC officers after the tribunal issued arrest warrants towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over suspected battle crimes in Gaza.
Final month, US Senator Lindsey Graham, whose Republican Get together will likely be in charge of each homes of Congress and the White Home beginning in January, known as the ICC a “harmful joke” and threatened penalties towards the court docket and any nation that cooperates with it.
“To any ally – Canada, Britain, Germany, France – for those who attempt to assist the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham mentioned on Fox Information.
In June, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a bill to sanction the court docket in response to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the arrest warrants towards Israeli officers.
The measure has thus far not been thought-about by the Senate, which at this level is managed by Democrats.
After the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and a Hamas chief final month, US Senator Tom Cotton suggested using military force towards The Hague-based tribunal.
The US and Israel aren’t members of the ICC, and so they have rejected the court docket’s investigations of alleged abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution.
Nonetheless, the court docket has dominated that it has jurisdiction in these areas as a result of the State of Palestine is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the tribunal.
“The court docket has been subjected to assaults looking for to undermine its legitimacy and skill to manage justice and realise worldwide legislation and elementary rights – coercive measures, threats, strain and acts of sabotage,” Akane mentioned.
She known as the efforts “appalling”.
Final week, the court docket decried the “current issuance of arrest warrants aimed toward threatening the freedom and integrity of two judges”. Russia had issued an arrest warrant for ICC Decide Haykel Ben Mahfoudh in November.
Moscow additionally beforehand indicted Khan and different court docket officers after the ICC issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Russian military leaders final yr over alleged battle crimes dedicated throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Akane warned on Monday that the autumn of the court docket by way of these threats would “suggest the autumn of the rule of legislation within the worldwide neighborhood”.
“Victims would not be capable to acquire justice. For a lot of of them, a world with out the ICC is inconceivable,” the ICC president mentioned.
“We firmly reject any try to affect the independence and the impartiality of the court docket,” she added.
The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute battle crimes, crimes towards humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to take action themselves.
Its warrant towards the Israeli leaders marked the primary time the court docket issued an order for a staunchly shut Western ally.
