The United States has imposed sanctions on the president of the International Criminal Court and a senior trial lawyer, escalating its long-running confrontation with the war crimes tribunal.
The Treasury Department said the measures freeze any US-based assets of the individuals and bar them from entering the United States. The president of the court, Tomoko Akane of Japan, is among those sanctioned; the senior trial lawyer was not named in the announcement.
The action is the latest in a series of moves by the US against the ICC, which Washington accuses of overstepping its mandate. The court, however, maintains that it acts as a court of last resort for the world's most serious crimes when national jurisdictions fail.
The sanctions come as the ICC investigates alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines, which was a member state until 2019. The investigation concerns the thousands of deaths during the Duterte administration's anti-drug campaign.
The Philippines has long been a point of contention for the ICC. Manila withdrew from the court in 2019, but the ICC argues it still has jurisdiction over crimes committed before the withdrawal.
This is not the first time the US has targeted ICC officials. In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the top prosecutor and another official over an investigation into possible war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan. The latest action appears to widen the scope to include the court's judicial leadership and trial lawyers.