“Today, in accordance with Executive Order 14203, I imposed sanctions on two judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – Gochi Lordkipanidze from Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin from Mongolia,” Rubio said in a statement, referring to the order signed by President Donald Trump in February, which refers to the sanctioning of the ICC, reports HINA.
“These individuals directly engaged in the ICC’s efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals without Israel’s consent,” Rubio said.
In a statement, Rubio referred to the justices’ participation in the vote that rejected one of several Israeli legal challenges to an ICC investigation into the conduct of the war in Gaza earlier this week.
The appointed judges were part of a panel that refused to overturn a lower court ruling that the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The ICC announced that it condemns the new round of US sanctions, which is already the fourth this year. “These sanctions represent a flagrant attack on the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the ICC said in a statement, warning that such measures threaten the international legal order.
The United States and Israel are not members of the ICC, but the Palestinian territories were admitted as a member state in 2015. Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a means of warfare, committed in Gaza.
The US sanctions introduced in February include the freezing of assets in the US of persons on the sanctioned list, as well as a ban on entry of them and their family members into the territory of the United States of America.
(Vijesti.ba)
