The International Criminal Court (ICC) has come under a new attack. On Wednesday, August 20, the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against four judges, including French judge Nicolas Guillou. The 50-year-old, a former judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and liaison magistrate to the US Department of Justice from 2012 to 2015, holds one of the ICC's most sensitive posts: He presides over the pre-trial chamber that issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity on November 21, 2024.

Canadian judge Kimberly Prost was sanctioned for having authorized the opening of an investigation into crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan, an investigation that has in fact been dormant since September 2021. Before joining the ICC in 2015, Prost served for five years as ombudsperson with the United Nations sanctions committee against Al-Qaeda, allowing individuals wrongfully targeted to be removed from sanctions lists.

The United States also targeted the two deputy prosecutors, Nazhat Shameem Khan from Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang from Senegal. The new sanctions come after the US blacklisted ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan in February and four other judges in June. In total, nine ICC officials have now been blacklisted in the same manner as terrorists, kleptocrats, drug traffickers and others, barred from traveling to the US and subject to economic sanctions.

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