ICC Chief Tomoko Akane vows to defend court after U.S. sanctions

International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane has rejected U.S. accusations against the court and vowed to defend its work after Washington imposed sanctions on her and a senior ICC lawyer.

The U.S. State Department announced sanctions against Akane, a Japanese national, and Abdoulaye Seye, a senior trial lawyer from Senegal. The measures freeze any assets they hold in U.S. jurisdictions or that pass through the American financial system.

Akane said the accusations that the ICC is a corrupt political organisation abusing international law are unfounded.

“There is simply no truth to the long-standing claims by the United States that the ICC is a corrupt political organization that has abused so-called international law to deprive independent states of their sovereignty, or that I myself have been involved in such activities.”

The Trump administration has now sanctioned nine of the ICC's 18 judges, as well as both deputy prosecutors, the court's former chief prosecutor and another member of the prosecution office.

Washington accuses the ICC of exceeding its mandate by investigating and seeking to prosecute senior political and military officials from countries including the United States and Israel, neither of which is a member of the court.

Akane said she had no reason to be targeted and urged Japan, a U.S. ally and ICC member, to press Washington not to escalate the measures.

She also called on other countries that belong to the ICC to resist pressure to withdraw.

The sanctions are the latest escalation in a growing confrontation between the United States and the court, which was established to prosecute individuals accused of the world's gravest international crimes.