Three judges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have launched a legal challenge against U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration, arguing that the economic sanctions leveled against them last year are illegal.
The federal lawsuit, submitted in Manhattan, was initiated by Judges Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin.
According to the plaintiffs, the administrative penalties were deployed as a form of extrajudicial pressure meant to penalize and intimidate them as they carried out their official judicial responsibilities.
The White House, along with the U.S. Departments of State and Treasury, have not yet released statements regarding the legal complaint.
Washington penalized multiple ICC jurists last year following the court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as its ongoing probe into suspected war crimes committed by American forces in Afghanistan.
The resulting financial restrictions have severely disrupted the judges’ day-to-day finances, given that international banking institutions dealing in U.S. dollars or maintaining American ties must strictly enforce the sanctions.
Founded in 2002, the ICC is mandated to prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity when they occur within its 125 member countries or are escalated to the tribunal by the United Nations Security Council. However, several global powers—including the United States, Russia, China, and Israel—refuse to accept the court’s jurisdiction.
Friction between the White House and the international tribunal is a recurring issue. During his first presidential term in 2020, Trump placed similar financial restrictions on former ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and a top assistant over the tribunal’s investigation into the conflict in Afghanistan.