ICC president vows to resist US and Russian pressure despite sanctions and threats

The president of the International Criminal Court says during the institution’s annual meeting that it will not bow to pressure from the United States and Russia.

Nine staff members, including six judges and the court’s chief prosecutor, have been sanctioned by US President Donald Trump for pursuing investigations into US and Israeli officials, while Moscow has issued warrants for the arrest of staff in response to an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

“We never accept any kind of pressure,” Judge Tomoko Akane tells delegations from the court’s 125 member states.

The sanctions have taken their toll on the court’s work across a broad array of investigations at a time when the institution is juggling ever more demands on its resources.

In her address last year, Akane warned that the court was being threatened by the incoming Trump administration. Three weeks after he took office for the second time, Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Prosecutor Karim Khan over investigations of Israel, a close US ally. The court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza after the deadly October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.