French authorities condemned sanctions announced by the United States on Tuesday against the president and a senior prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling it an "attack" on the court and all its stakeholders.
The French Foreign Ministry said that France "expresses solidarity with the targeted judges, the President of the ICC, Japan's Tomoko Akane, and the Senegalese Chief Prosecutor, Abdoulaye Seyyed," French media reported.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on the president and one of the top prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, intensifying its campaign of sanctions against the United Nations court based in The Hague.
Since last year, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed a series of sanctions on ICC officials, including prosecutors and judges, condemning arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
Washington also criticizes the ICC, whose legitimacy the US does not recognize, for investigating alleged abuses by the US military in Afghanistan.
The sanctions, announced by the US Treasury Department, freeze any assets held in the US and essentially cut off access to the US financial system, with which most internationally operating banks have close ties.
Washington sees the ICC as a threat to US forces tasked with enforcing Donald Trump's aggressive anti-immigration policies on the ground, as well as carrying out raids off the Caribbean coast on ships accused of being linked to drug trafficking - raids whose legality is disputed by experts.
Although the US has never joined the ICC, the court has the authority to prosecute war crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
