The newly sanctioned president of the International Criminal Court is decrying President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the organization.
The State Department announced on Tuesday that it would be sanctioning ICC President Tomoko Akane, a Japanese legal scholar who serves as the ICC’s president, for having “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.”
Akane said the sanctions were not a shock to her, given the multiple ICC officials already punished by the United States, but warned that the decision could lead to the end of international law.
“The sanction against me this time was something I had anticipated to an extent, so I’m not surprised,” Akane said. “The important thing is not to let this be the beginning of the demise of international rule of law.”
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<p> ” data-large-file=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law.webp” src=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law.webp” alt=”Tomoko AKane” class=”wp-image-4696275″ srcset=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-2.webp 1024w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-2.webp?resize=300,185 300w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-2.webp?resize=768,474 768w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-2.webp?resize=150,93 150w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-2.webp?resize=696,430 696w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”><figcaption class=)
Judge Tomoko Akane walks before delivering the verdict in the Al Hassan case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday Nov. 20, 2024. (Eva Plevier/ ANP via AP, Pool)ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese national, was also hit with sanctions.
Washington has accused the ICC of working to undermine “state sovereignty” and called the body a “corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate.”
The ICC previously condemned the sanctions as “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution.”
Japanese Foreign Ministry press secretary Toshihiro Kitamura said on Wednesday that the sanctions were “very unfortunate” but “Japan will remain committed to strengthening the rule of law in the international community, while maintaining communication with related countries.”
The U.S. has never been a member of the ICC and has rejected the court’s authority across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Throughout Trump’s second administration, the State Department has been explicit that its ultimate goal is to “systematically dismantle the ICC until it is incapable of threatening American sovereignty.”
Sanctions from the State Department carry immense power on an international level, preventing U.S. financial institutions from engaging with the subject. This can affect foreign nationals’ abilities to bank, use credit cards, or even pay bills.
ICC judges Kimberly Prost from Canada, Reine Alapini-Gansou from Benin, and Solomy Balungi Bossa from Uganda jointly filed a lawsuit in June seeking immediate relief from sanctions imposed on them by the State Department and Treasury Department for their activities related to the court. The judges described the effects of the sanctions a “financial death penalty.”
 in The Hague, the Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. The former militia leader is suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. (Koen Van Well/Pool photo via AP)</p>
<p> ” data-large-file=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-1.webp” src=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-1.webp” alt=”Tomoko Akane” class=”wp-image-4696276″ srcset=”https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-3.jpg 1024w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-3.jpg?resize=300,170 300w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-3.jpg?resize=768,436 768w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-3.jpg?resize=150,85 150w, https://conservativemodern.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/icc-president-decries-being-sanctioned-by-us-demise-of-international-rule-of-law-3.jpg?resize=696,395 696w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”><figcaption class=)
Judges Tomoko Akane, Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua and Rosario Salvatore Aitala preside over the first audience with the chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. The former militia leader is suspected of having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. (Koen Van Well/Pool photo via AP)Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing ICC member states to abandon the organization and imposing travel bans on members of the court. Five countries have announced intentions to leave the court in the past year: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Venezuela.
NETANYAHU SAYS ICC PROSECUTOR USED ISRAELI PM’S ARREST WARRANT AS ‘POLITICAL SHIELD’
A watershed moment for the ICC occurred in 2024, when the court issued an international arrest warrant for sitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes.
Member states of the ICC are expected to comply with all such warrants issued by the court, but multiple members in Europe refused to comply — including Italy, France, and Germany.
The Israeli premier celebrated the Tuesday sanctions, calling the ICC a “kangaroo court that cloaks its abuse of power in the language of international law while undermining the very principles of justice.”
