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.
