WASHINGTON — The State Department on Thursday announced formal sanctions against two judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), marking a significant escalation in the U.S. campaign to block the court’s attempts to prosecute Israeli officials.
In a press statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Judge Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Judge Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia under Executive Order 14203. The move follows a Dec. 15 ruling by the ICC that rejected Israel’s appeal against the court’s jurisdiction, a decision in which both judges voted with the majority.
The sanctions effectively freeze any U.S. assets held by the judges and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.
“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent,” Rubio said. “The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations.”
The Biden administration’s use of sanctions reflects a long-standing U.S. position that the Hague-based court has no authority over citizens of countries that are not party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court.
Washington characterized the ICC’s recent legal maneuvers as “lawfare” and an “abuse of power” that threatens the sovereignty of non-member states.
“Our message to the Court has been clear: the United States and Israel are not party to the Rome Statute and therefore reject the ICC’s jurisdiction,” Rubio said. “We will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to the ICC’s lawfare and overreach.”
The designation of Lordkipanidze and Damdin follows months of warnings from U.S. lawmakers that the court would face “severe consequences” if it proceeded with arrest warrants for Israeli leadership.
The State Department asserted that the ICC’s focus on Israeli personnel wrongly subjects them to a jurisdiction they never accepted, vowing that the U.S. would not tolerate actions that “wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction.”
The ICC has not yet officially commented on the sanctions against its members.
