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ICC’s Putin Arrest Warrant Based On State Department-Funded Report

April 17, 2023 Jeremy Loffredo and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. , , , , ,
On March 17, the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, introduced an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Llova-Belova. The warrant, which accused Putin and Lolva-Belova of conducting the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children to a “network of camps” across the Russian Federation, inspired a wave of incendiary commentary in the West. US Sen. Lindsey Graham, perhaps the most aggressive cheerleader in Congress for war with Russia, proclaimed: “The ICC has an arrest warrant for Putin because he has organized the kidnapping of at least 16,000 Ukrainian children from their families and sent them to Russia.

US Threatened To Invade International Criminal Court

March 30, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , ,
Many countries in the Global South have denounced the International Criminal Court as a neocolonial institution, biased in favor of the West. Its leadership has been dominated by Europeans, and as of 2016, only Africans had been brought to trial at the court. In a rare point of agreement, the United States has also opposed the International Criminal Court (ICC) since its inception. The US is not a member of the ICC, and Washington has even imposed sanctions on its top officials and threatened to arrest judges and prosecutors. In fact, when the court first opened in the Netherlands in 2002, the United States passed a law known as the “Hague Invasion Act.”

ICC Charges Putin With War Crimes; US And Israeli Leaders Enjoy Impunity

March 28, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , , ,
On March 17, a little more than one year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced that the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the commission of war crimes in Ukraine. The PTC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for the same war crimes. While the U.S. celebrates the arrest warrant against Putin, it has pressured the ICC to refrain from prosecuting Israelis and Americans. There is a double standard in the ICC’s treatment of the situations in Ukraine and Palestine.

Al Jazeera Asks ICC To Investigate Killing Of Shireen Abu Akleh

December 7, 2022 Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada. , , , ,
Al Jazeera has submitted a request for an investigation into the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh by the International Criminal Court. The Doha-based network said that its case presented to the tribunal follows “a full and detailed investigation.” Al Jazeera added that its submission presents new evidence showing that Abu Akleh, a longtime television correspondent for the network, was deliberately killed while reporting on an Israeli raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin during May. After initially blaming Palestinians, and following unprecedented international scrutiny, Israel eventually admitted that one of its soldiers likely killed the iconic journalist but claimed that it was unintentional.

After Undermining ICC, US Now Wants It To Charge Russians

April 23, 2022 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , ,
Although the United States has tried mightily to undermine the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it became operational in 2002, the U.S. government is now pushing for the ICC to prosecute Russian leaders for war crimes in Ukraine. Apparently, Washington thinks the ICC is reliable enough to try Russians but not to bring U.S. or Israeli officials to justice. On March 15, the Senate unanimously passed S. Res 546, which “encourages member states to petition the ICC or other appropriate international tribunal to take any appropriate steps to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Armed Forces.” When he introduced the resolution, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said, “This is a proper exercise of jurisdiction.

Venezuela Is The Fifth Country With Most ‘Sanctions’ In The World

August 26, 2021 Alba Ciudad, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
Venezuela has submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) a new report containing evidence on the damage caused by the illegal sanctions—the unilateral coercive measures imposed by authorities of the United States and the European Union. The report also provides evidence on how the United States government and the European Union have intentionally issued them in order to make the Venezuelan people suffer painful situations, to create conditions for overthrowing the constitutionally elected government of President Maduro. This was announced by the Executive Vice President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez, at a press conference at the Miraflores Palace on Tuesday, August 24.

US To Remove Sanctions From ICC Chief Prosecutor

April 2, 2021 Quds News Network. , ,
The Biden administration will remove in the coming days sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on officials at the International Criminal Court, according to a report issued on Wednesday night. Sources familiar with the matter said the move could happen as soon as this week or next, but an official cautioned that no formal decision has yet been announced. Last year, former US President Donald Trump imposed economic and travel sanctions against International Criminal Court employees investigating abuses by Americans and its allies, including the occupation state of ‘Israel’.

Palestinian Groups Call On ICC To Take Swift Action

February 7, 2021 Morning Star. , , ,
Palestinian organisations have urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to move swiftly in holding Israel to account for its actions in the Occupied Territories after a landmark decision on Friday. Judges ruled that it is within the court’s remit hear war crimes allegations made against Israel in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. In a preliminary investigation opened six years ago, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda focused on 2014’s Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, which left 2,257 Palestinians dead, along with 74 Israeli soldiers. In December 2019, Ms Bensouda said there was “a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”

US Sanctions Targeting International Criminal Court Are An Outrage

September 10, 2020 the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. , , ,
On 2 September 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the imposition of sanctions on Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and prosecution jurisdiction director for authorizing such an investigation, including war crimes committed by U.S. forces, for which U.S. officials bear responsibility. These sanctions were based on a declaration by U.S. President Trump of a national emergency on this subject in June of 2020. The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) rejects as outrageous these sanctions on senior prosecution officials of the International Criminal Court.

EU And France Call On US To Reverse ‘Unacceptable’ Sanctions Against ICC’s War Crimes Investigators

September 5, 2020 RT. , , ,
US sanctions against two International Criminal Court officials are “unacceptable and unprecedented” and should be reversed, said the EU’s top diplomat, while the French foreign minister called them “a grave attack” on the court. The sanctions are “unacceptable and unprecedented measures that attempt to obstruct the court's investigations and judicial proceedings,” EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement on Thursday. The US should “reconsider its position and reverse the measures it has taken,” Borrell added. His comments came shortly after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the sanctions as “a grave attack against the court,” saying it put into question “multilateralism and the independence of the judiciary.” 

US Punishes ICC For Investigating Potential War Crimes

September 3, 2020 Susan M. Akram, The Conversation. , , , ,
The Trump administration has sought to weaken or abandon various international agencies since 2016. Now it’s taking aim at the International Criminal Court, a global tribunal that investigates and prosecutes war crimes, torture and genocide. Claiming the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan poses a national security threat, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 11 effectively criminalizing anyone who works at the ICC. Its lawyers, judges, human rights researchers and staff could now have their U.S. bank accounts frozen, U.S. visas revoked and travel to the U.S. denied.

Israel’s Secret List Of Officials Who May Stand Trial At International Court

July 20, 2020 Noa Landau, Haaretz. , , ,
Israel is drawing up a secret list of military and intelligence officials who might be subject to arrest abroad if the International Criminal Court in the Hague opens an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories. Haaretz has learned that this list now includes between 200 and 300 officials, some of whom have not been informed. The great secrecy surrounding the issue stems from a fear that the mere disclosure of the list’s existence could endanger the people on it. The assessment is that the court is likely to view a list of names as an official Israeli admission of these officials’ involvement in the incidents under investigation. The ICC is expected to rule shortly on whether to approve the request by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate Israel and Hamas over suspicions of war crimes in the territories beginning in 2014, the year of Operation Protective Edge.

‘Godfather’ Donald’s Mafia War On The ICC

July 7, 2020 Danny Sjursen, AntiWar.com. , , ,
Free advice: one way for an administration to avoid the ire of an International Criminal Court (ICC) is not to act like a mafia crime family. Appearances and all. Only discretion has never been Donald Trump’s game. The kid from Queens – who built a casino empire in mobbed-up 1980s Atlantic City – thrives in another (under)world entirely. So, when the ICC had the temerity to even investigate America’s spies and soldiers in Afghanistan, Trump tried rather stronger(-arm) tactics: Mafia-style intimidation. I’m no Martin Scorsese, but here’s how it basically went down, in lay(“made-“)man’s terms: Youse foreign snowflakes from sissy Netherlands wanna stick your noses in our business? Alright then, my associates here got somethin’ for ya: Badabing! Suck on these! [sanctions, canceled visas, and endless threats]

US And Israel Team Up To Thwart War Crimes Probes

April 19, 2020 Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada. , , ,
The US secretary of state’s threats to sanction two employees working for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and their families last month may have been the opening salvoes of a new US-Israel war against the justice body in The Hague. Both states currently face the embarrassing specter of war crimes investigations by the court – an unprecedented challenge to their impunity. In response, they aim to disempower the court by preventing it from exercising jurisdiction in countries that are not state parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty on which the court was founded. Should the US and Israel succeed, it would be a significant blow to the court’s independent mandate and purpose as a court of last resort for the victims of the world’s worst human rights abusers.

Scheer Intelligence: Even The ICC Can’t Rein In American Exceptionalism

April 3, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW.com. , , ,
In early March, senior judges in the international criminal court ruled that an investigation into the actions the U.S., Afghan and Taliban military committed in 2003 could take place, overturning a previous ruling. Perhaps more remarkable than the fact the ICC, which had earlier assumed such an investigation wouldn’t be possible because none of those implicated would be likely to cooperate, was the U.S. response to the decision.  “This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Although the Trump official’s blatant disparaging of a global justice organization is deeply troubling, American undermining of the ICC predates both Donald Trump’s rise to power and the Afghanistan War.
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