The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on August 18 against Judge Tomoko Akane, President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and senior ICC trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye under Executive Order 14203.
These sanctions freeze assets within U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit sanctioned individuals from accessing American financial systems. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterized the ICC as “a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court” that has “exceeded its mandate.”
The United States has sanctioned nine of the court’s 18 judges, both deputy prosecutors, former prosecutor Karim Khan, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye — a total of 13 current or former ICC personnel.
On July 24, the Assembly of States Parties, the ICC’s governing body, voted to remove former prosecutor Karim Khan from office after finding he committed “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty.”
The ICC’s 2026 budget projection includes “targeted resources for external relations, IT systems and security measures” to ensure rapid response to evolving risks.
High-flown language about impartiality and international rule of law has been undermined by scandals that threaten the institution’s credibility.
Recent reports detail controversies surrounding the ICC’s chief prosecutors. Prior to serving as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda held senior positions in Gambia during the dictatorship of Yahya Jammeh, including solicitor general and attorney general, yet claims she knew nothing about torture, disappearances, murders, illegal detentions, and prison deaths under his regime.
The early years under ICC’s first prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, generated widespread criticism. During his tenure, the court focused overwhelmingly on African countries, fostering perceptions of selective enforcement.
In Kenya, the ICC charged several senior figures over post-election violence in 2007–08. According to the ICC’s own assessment, Ocampo mishandled the case. The most high-profile individual sought was Uhuru Kenyatta, who later won the presidential election by campaigning on an anti-ICC narrative.
After leaving the ICC, Ocampo moved into academia and consulting, holding positions at Harvard and Yale while continuing to reference his former affiliation. In 2017, Der Spiegel reported that he owned companies in tax havens during his tenure and later advised a Libyan oil billionaire, Hassan Tatanaki — a former Gadhafi supporter who sought his help avoiding ICC prosecution. Ocampo acknowledged advising Tatanaki but disputed allegations of wrongdoing.
These controversies cast shadows over Ocampo’s subsequent work. For instance, in 2023 he issued an “expert opinion” that Azerbaijan’s blockade of Karabakh constituted genocide. Azerbaijan subsequently retained British international-law expert Rodney Dixon KC to challenge his methodology and argue he failed to consider contrary evidence or establish the specific intent required for genocide.
It should also be noted that Armenia’s pending case against Azerbaijan before the International Court of Justice proceeds under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, not the Genocide Convention.
In 2026, purported recordings involving Ocampo and his son, Tomás, raised disturbing questions. In one recording, they allegedly discussed strategies to influence European Union institutions. In another, Tomás described a network focused on “removing” Armenia’s anti-Russian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, less than two months before national elections.
The severity of these allegations necessitates that governments with forensic capabilities verify the recordings’ authenticity and publicly disclose their findings.
For a court employing roughly 900 people, achieving 13 convictions and four acquittals in nearly 25 years is a meager accomplishment.
