Credit: Greger Ravik (CC BY 2.0)

Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, French judge Nicolas Guillou and deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan, from Fiji, and Mame Mandiaye Niang, from Senegal, are the latest to be targeted by the US.

Four other ICC judges and the ICC’s prosecutor were sanctioned earlier this year, as well as Francesca Albanese, a leading UN expert on Palestine.

The sanctions have been imposed in retaliation for the ICC’s issuing of arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Judges concluded in November 2024 that there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

They also issued arrest warrants in respect of three Hamas leaders, all three of whom have since been killed in Israeli military operations.

Shortly after his return to the White House, Donald Trump issued an executive order in February 2025 which provided for sanctions against ICC personnel for having supposedly “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”.

In a statement today, the International Criminal Court blasted the new sanctions as a “flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 states parties from all regions”.

“They constitute also an affront against the court’s states parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world,” it added.

The ICC has called on states parties “and all those who share the values of humanity and the rule of law to provide firm and consistent support to the court and its work carried out in the sole interest of victims of international crimes”.