Two members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the American blacklist.
Two months before the presidential election in the United States, the administration of Donald Trump on Wednesday, September 2, put his threat to execution against one of the pet peeves of the American conservatives by imposing unprecedented economic sanctions on the prosecutor of the Court international criminal law.
“Today we are walking the talk,” said US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo, “because the ICC unfortunately continues to target Americans”.
He announced the blacklisting of the United States of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, director of the division of competence, complementarity and cooperation of the jurisdiction which sits in The Hague, Pays -Low.
Their possible assets in the United States will be frozen and access to the American financial system is barred to them.
"Any individual or entity that will continue to materially assist these individuals is also exposed to sanctions," Mike Pompeo warned at a press conference.
"We will not tolerate illegitimate attempts by the ICC to bring Americans under its jurisdiction."
Announced in July, the sanctions had already made the prosecutor react.
"This is an attempt to interfere in the course of justice", then denounced Fatou Bensouda, on France 24.
Already engaged in an unprecedented offensive against the ICC, US President Donald Trump in June authorized economic sanctions against his officials to dissuade the court from prosecuting US soldiers for their involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan.
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"Unprecedented and unacceptable measures"
Wednesday's announcement is the first concrete expression of this threat.
Washington had previously banned court officials from entering the United States and revoked Fatou Bensouda's US visa.
Sanctions "unacceptable," said the president of the Court's Assembly of States Parties, Judge O-Gon Kwon, on Wednesday.
"I strongly reject these unprecedented and unacceptable measures against an international treaty-based organization," he said in a statement.
These punitive measures "constitute a bewildering perversion of the American sanctions, supposed to penalize those who violate human rights and the kleptocrats, used here to persecute those who are charged with judging international crimes", reacted Richard Dicker, of the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International condemned "yet another brazen attack on international justice".
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has confined himself to "taking note" of the American sanctions, ensuring "to follow closely the developments of this file", according to his spokesperson.
In June, the ICC deplored "a series of unprecedented attacks" against it, underlining its independence.
"These attacks constitute an escalation and an unacceptable attempt to undermine the rule of law and the judicial procedures of the Court," she added.
Afghanistan war crimes investigation
Washington is not angry with the appeal decision in March to allow an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan despite opposition from the Trump administration.
The investigation desired by prosecutor Bensouda targets, among other things, abuses allegedly committed by American soldiers in the country, where the United States has been waging the longest war in its history since 2001.
Allegations of torture have also been made against the CIA.
The judges of the Court had, at first, refused to authorize this investigation after a first unprecedented threat of sanctions from Washington, which is not a member of this jurisdiction, unlike Kabul.
Stubborn opposition from the US government also extends to "politically motivated" investigations against Israel, which may be the subject of war crimes investigations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Court is governed by the Rome Statute, a treaty that entered into force in 2002 and has since been ratified by more than 120 countries.
It is one of the main incarnations of multilateralism hated by President Trump and the sovereignist fringe of the American conservative camp.
"Multilateralism for multilateralism, just to end up in a room and chat, it does not help," blasted Mike Pompeo, who is involved in the election campaign of the billionaire Republican for a second term in a way unprecedented for a secretary of state in function.
With AFP
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