Washington, USA: The United States government under the administration of President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, including Uganda’s Justice Solomy Balungi Bossa, in retaliation for the court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its investigations into alleged U.S. war crimes.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Thursday, naming Justice Bossa alongside judges Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia.
The four jurists are accused of enabling “illegitimate and baseless” actions by the ICC that allegedly target the U.S. and its allies.
“As ICC judges, these individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel. The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,” Rubio said in a statement.
Justice Bossa and her Peruvian colleague Ibanez Carranza joined the ICC in 2018 and were part of a 2020 appeals chamber that allowed the court to open a formal probe into war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
While the investigation was later refocused on crimes by the Taliban and Afghan government, Washington’s opposition to ICC scrutiny has remained fierce.
Judges Alapini Gansou and Hohler were also targeted for authorizing the arrest warrants issued in November 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas commander Ibrahim Al-Masri, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
The ICC condemned the U.S. sanctions, describing them as an assault on judicial independence and a threat to global justice. “These sanctions are an attempt to undermine the ICC’s independence and its mandate to provide hope and justice to millions of victims of unimaginable atrocities,” the court stated.
The latest move by Washington comes amid broader Republican-led backlash against the ICC, including a January 2025 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to punish the court for its actions against Israel.
Justice Karim Khan, the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, who led several high-profile investigations, is currently under a United Nations inquiry over alleged sexual misconduct, further complicating the court’s global standing.
The ICC, founded in 2002, has ongoing investigations in several global conflict zones, including Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Venezuela, and the Philippines. The United States, China, Russia, and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute and reject the court’s jurisdiction.
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