On August 18 the U.S. Secretary of State sanctioned International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge, and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese senior trial lawyer in the Office of the Prosecutor who has been investigating conduct in the West Bank and is nominated for election as an ICC judge. The Court condemned the designations on August 19 as a “flagrant attack” on its judicial independence, warning that the international legal order is at risk when judicial actors are threatened for applying the law. The sanctions now reach nine of the Court’s eighteen judges, both deputy prosecutors, the former prosecutor, and one staff member, freezing U.S. assets and cutting the individuals off from the U.S. financial system. Japan’s prime minister called the move “very unfortunate,” the UN Secretary-General expressed serious concern, and France reaffirmed support for the Court. Rights groups and ICC judges are challenging the designations in U.S. courts on First and Fifth Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act grounds.

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