The U.S. has placed sanctions on the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Ms Fatou Bensouda.
Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State said on Wednesday that the sanctions are as a result of ICC’s continued investigations of U.S. persons.
Included to the sanctions list is Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of the ICC’s jurisdiction division.
Dpa reports that this year, the Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on ICC employees involved in investigating U.S. troops for potential war crimes in Afghanistan.
The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community – with the U.S. declining to join – to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in places where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice.
Pompeo said that since the U.S. was not part of the ICC, the investigations were “illegitimate.”
Source: dpa
