Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work

Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work
Karim Khan, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, speaks during a news conference in Khartoum, Aug. 12, 2021. (AP/File)
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Updated 15 May 2025
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Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work

Trump’s sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal’s work
  • The sanctions will “prevent victims from getting access to justice,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at HRW
  • Iverson filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court ‘s chief prosecutor has lost access to his email, and his bank accounts have been frozen.

The Hague-based court’s American staffers have been told that if they travel to the US they risk arrest.

Some nongovernmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC and the leaders of one won’t even reply to emails from court officials.

Those are just some of the hurdles facing court staff since US President Donald Trump in February slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, according to interviews with current and former ICC officials, international lawyers and human rights advocates.

The sanctions will “prevent victims from getting access to justice,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

Trump sanctioned the court after a panel of ICC judges in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

Judges found there was reason to believe that the pair may have committed war crimes by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeting civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny.

Staffers and allies of the ICC said the sanctions have made it increasingly difficult for the tribunal to conduct basic tasks, let alone seek justice for victims of war crimes or genocide.

A spokesperson for the ICC and for Khan declined to comment. In February, ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane said that the sanctions “constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims.”

Order targets chief prosecutor

The February order bans Khan and other non-Americans among the ICC’s 900 staff members from entering the US, which is not a member of the court. It also threatens any person, institution or company with fines and prison time if they provide Khan with “financial, material, or technological support.”

The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations, not just the one into Israel’s leaders.

The ICC had been investigating atrocities in Sudan and had issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir on charges that include genocide. That probe has ground to a halt even as reports mount of new atrocities in Sudan, according to an attorney representing ICC prosecutor Eric Iverson, who is fighting the sanctions in US courts. Iverson filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking protection from the sanctions.

Iverson “cannot do, what I would describe as, basic lawyer functions,” said Allison Miller, who is representing Iverson in the suit.

American staffers at the organization, like Iverson, have been warned by its attorneys that they risk arrest if they return home to visit family, according to ICC officials. Six senior officials have left the court over concerns about sanctions.

One reason the the court has been hamstrung is that it relies heavily on contractors and non-governmental organizations. Those businesses and groups have curtailed work on behalf of the court because they were concerned about being targeted by US authorities, according to current and former ICC staffers.

Microsoft, for example, canceled Khan’s email address, forcing the prosecutor to move to Proton Mail, a Swiss email provider, ICC staffers said. His bank accounts in his home country of the UK have been blocked.

Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

Staffers at an NGO that plays an integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses said the group has transferred money out of US bank accounts because they fear it might be seized by the Trump administration.

Senior leadership at two other US-based human rights organizations told the AP that their groups have stopped working with the ICC. A senior staffer at one told the AP that employees have stopped replying to emails from court officials out of fear of triggering a response from the Trump administration.

The cumulative effect of such actions has led ICC staffers to openly wonder whether the organization can survive the Trump administration, according to ICC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

One questioned whether the court would make it through the next four years.

Trump alleged ICC’s actions were baseless

Trump, a staunch supporter of Netanyahu, issued his sanctions order shortly after re-taking office, accusing the ICC of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” Washington says the court has no jurisdiction over Israel.

Trump’s order said the ICC’s “actions against Israel and the United States set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces.” He said the court’s “malign conduct” threatens “the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Netanyahu has dismissed the ICC’s allegations as “absurd,” and Israel’s Knesset is considering legislation that would make providing evidence to the court a crime.

Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting scores of others. Hamas is believed to be holding about two dozen hostages.

Coping with dark humor

Inside the court, staffers have been coping with dark humor, joking about how they cannot even loan Khan a pen or risk appearing on the US radar.

This is not the first time the ICC has drawn Trump’s ire. In 2020, the former Trump administration sanctioned Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her deputies over the court’s investigation into alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan while the US military was operating in the country.

President Joe Biden rescinded the sanctions when he took office several months later.

Three lawsuits are now pending from US court staff and consultants against the Trump administration arguing that the sanctions infringe on their freedom of expression. Earlier this week Iverson, the lawyer investigating genocide in Sudan, won temporary protection from prosecution. But if other US citizens at the court want a similar assurance, they would have to bring their own complaint.

Meanwhile, the court is facing a lack of cooperation from countries normally considered to be its staunchest supporters.

The ICC has no enforcement apparatus of its own and relies on member states. In the last year, three countries – including two in the European Union – have refused to execute warrants issued by the court.

Also in recent months, judges have banned Khan from publicizing his requests for warrants in several investigations. The first such ban, imposed in February and obtained by AP, targeted warrants in the court’s investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. Subsequent orders, also seen by AP, include a ban on the publication of warrant requests in the investigation into crimes in the Palestinian territories.

The court was already facing internal challenges. Last year, just weeks before Khan announced he was requesting arrest warrants for the Israeli officials, two court staff reported the British barrister had harassed a female aide, according to reporting by the AP.

Khan has categorically denied the accusations that he groped and tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship. A United Nations investigation is underway, and Khan has since been accused of retaliating against staff who supported the woman, including demoting several people he felt were critical of him.


‘Japanese First’ party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk

‘Japanese First’ party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk
Updated 19 sec ago
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‘Japanese First’ party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk

‘Japanese First’ party emerges as election force with tough immigration talk
  • Sanseito party was birthed on YouTube during pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites
  • Party to win between 10 and 22 upper house seats and its leader says he wants to expand lower house presence

TOKYO: The fringe far-right Sanseito party emerged as one of the biggest winners in Japan’s upper house election on Sunday, gaining support with warnings of a “silent invasion” of immigrants, and pledges for tax cuts and welfare spending.

Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the party broke into mainstream politics with its “Japanese First” campaign.

Public broadcaster NHK projected the party to win as many as 22 seats, adding to the single lawmaker it secured in the 248-seat chamber three years ago. It has only three seats in the more powerful lower house.

“The phrase Japanese First was meant to express rebuilding Japanese people’s livelihoods by resisting globalism. I am not saying that we should completely ban foreigners or that every foreigner should get out of Japan,” Sohei Kamiya, the party’s 47-year-old leader, said in an interview with local broadcaster Nippon Television after the election.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito will likely lose their majority in the upper house, leaving them further beholden to opposition support following a lower house defeat in October.

“Sanseito has become the talk of the town, and particularly here in America, because of the whole populist and anti-foreign sentiment. It’s more of a weakness of the LDP and Ishiba than anything else,” said Joshua Walker, head of the US non-profit Japan Society.

In polling ahead of Sunday’s election, 29 percent of voters told NHK that social security and a declining birthrate were their biggest concern. A total of 28 percent said they worried about rising rice prices, which have doubled in the past year. Immigration was in joint fifth place with 7 percent of respondents pointing to it.

“We were criticized as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The public came to understand that the media was wrong and Sanseito was right,” Kamiya said.

Kamiya’s message grabbed voters frustrated with a weak economy and currency that has lured tourists in record numbers in recent years, further driving up prices that Japanese can ill afford, political analysts say.

Japan’s fast-aging society has also seen foreign-born residents hit a record of about 3.8 million last year, though that is just 3 percent of the total population, a fraction of the corresponding proportion in the United States and Europe.

Inspired by Trump

Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, told Reuters before the election that he had drawn inspiration from US President Donald Trump’s “bold political style.”

He has also drawn comparisons with Germany’s AfD and Reform UK although right-wing populist policies have yet to take root in Japan as they have in Europe and the United States.

Post-election, Kamiya said he plans to follow the example of Europe’s emerging populist parties by building alliances with other small parties rather than work with an LDP administration, which has ruled for most of Japan’s postwar history.

Sanseito’s focus on immigration has already shifted Japan’s politics to the right. Just days before the vote, Ishiba’s administration announced a new government taskforce to fight “crimes and disorderly conduct” by foreign nationals and his party has promised a target of “zero illegal foreigners.”

Kamiya, who won the party’s first seat in 2022 after gaining notoriety for appearing to call for Japan’s emperor to take concubines, has tried to tone down some controversial ideas formerly embraced by the party.

During the campaign, Kamiya, however, faced a backlash for branding gender equality policies a mistake that encourage women to work and keep them from having children.

To soften what he said was his “hot-blooded” image and to broaden support beyond the men in their twenties and thirties that form the core of Sanseito’s support, Kamiya fielded a raft of female candidates on Sunday.

Those included the single-named singer Saya, who clinched a seat in Tokyo.

Like other opposition parties Sanseito called for tax cuts and an increase in child benefits, policies that led investors to fret about Japan’s fiscal health and massive debt pile, but unlike them it has a far bigger online presence from where it can attack Japan’s political establishment.

Its YouTube channel has 400,000 followers, more than any other party on the platform and three times that of the LDP, according to socialcounts.org.

Sanseito’s upper house breakthrough, Kamiya said, is just the beginning.

“We are gradually increasing our numbers and living up to people’s expectations. By building a solid organization and securing 50 or 60 seats, I believe our policies will finally become reality,” he said.


Russia insists on achieving Ukraine goals despite Trump’s ultimatum

Russia insists on achieving Ukraine goals despite Trump’s ultimatum
Updated 18 min 41 sec ago
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Russia insists on achieving Ukraine goals despite Trump’s ultimatum

Russia insists on achieving Ukraine goals despite Trump’s ultimatum
  • Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, launching more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024
  • US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions

Russia is open to peace with Ukraine, but achieving its goals remains a priority, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday, days after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions.

Peskov and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected accusations from Kyiv and its Western partners of stalling peace talks. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to intensify its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, launching more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy,” Peskov told state television in an interview.

“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals,” he said. “Our goals are clear.”

The Kremlin has insisted that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022, but never fully captured. It also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces — demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his officials have proposed a new round of peace talks this week. Russian state media on Sunday reported that no date has yet been set for the negotiations, but said that Istanbul would likely remain the host city.

Truce or sanctions

Trump threatened Russia on July 14 with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration following unsuccessful negotiations aimed at ending the war. The direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul resulted in several rounds of prisoner exchanges but little else.

The US president said that he would implement “severe tariffs” unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but suggested they would target Russia’s trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.

In addition, Trump said that European allies would buy “billions and billions” of dollars of US military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country’s supplies of weapons. Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles.

Doubts were recently raised about Trump’s commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that US stockpiles were running low.

Drone strikes

Elsewhere, Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down 18 of 57 Shahed-type and decoy drones launched by Russia overnight into Sunday, with seven more disappearing from radar.

Two women were wounded in Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian region partly occupied by Russia, when a drone struck their house, according to the regional military administration. Two more civilians were wounded in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province, after a drone slammed into a residential building, local Ukrainian officials said.

Later Sunday, drones struck a leafy square in the center of Sumy, wounding a woman and her 7-year-old son, officials said. The strike also damaged a power line, leaving around 100 households without electricity, according to Serhii Krivosheienko, of the municipal military administration.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down 93 Ukrainian drones targeting Russian territory overnight, including at least 15 that appeared to head for Moscow. At least 13 more drones were downed on the approach to the capital on Sunday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. One drone struck a residential building in Zelenograd, on the outskirts of Moscow, damaging an apartment, but caused no casualties, he said.


UN warns British couple held by Taliban could die in custody as health deteriorates

UN warns British couple held by Taliban could die in custody as health deteriorates
Updated 20 July 2025
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UN warns British couple held by Taliban could die in custody as health deteriorates

UN warns British couple held by Taliban could die in custody as health deteriorates
  • Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were arrested on Feb. 1
  • No reason for their detention has been given

LONDON: A panel of UN experts has warned that two elderly British citizens held by the Taliban without charge in Afghanistan are in such poor health they could die in custody, The Sunday Times reported.

Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were arrested on Feb. 1 after disembarking from a domestic flight in Bamian province, where they had lived since 2009. No reason for their detention has been given.

“We see no reason why this elderly couple should be detained at all, and have requested an immediate review of the grounds of their detention,” said Alice Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture.

“It is inhumane to keep them locked up in such degrading conditions and more worrying when their health is so fragile,” she added.

The couple, who previously ran training programs and had remained in Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021, have spent months in appalling conditions, first in the notorious Pul-e-Charki prison and later in an underground cell at the intelligence services headquarters. 

They now sleep on mats, without beds or furniture, and have limited access to phones.

Peter, who suffered a mini-stroke in 2023, is believed to have had another stroke or silent heart attack in custody. Barbie is suffering dizzy spells and numbness linked to anemia. 

A UK Foreign Office official who visited last week saw Peter’s face red and peeling, possibly due to a recurrence of skin cancer.

“Their physical and mental health is deteriorating rapidly,” Edwards said. “Without access to adequate medical care they are at risk of irreparable harm or even death,” she added.

“We have been told we are guests of the government but this is no way to treat a guest,” Barbie told the visiting UK official.

Peter said in a phone message to The Sunday Times that he was being kept in chains alongside serious offenders, calling it “the nearest thing to Hell I can imagine.” 

He added: “I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle-cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away.”

Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, said: “Mum described dad’s rapidly deteriorating health. It’s incredibly worrying.” She added: “They need urgent medical attention. Dad desperately needs to be seen by a hospital. Surely the Taliban don’t want his death on their hands. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

The UN statement said: “Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds were reportedly detained without formal charges, have had no access to effective legal assistance and only have very limited contact with their family by telephone.”

Their children, who had planned a party in the US for Barbie’s 80th birthday, have sent private letters and launched multiple appeals for their release. “Enough is enough,” said Entwistle. “It’s been five months now.”

The Taliban have offered no formal explanation, though theories include suspicion over religious books, Barbie’s teaching work or potential leverage to pressure the UK to reopen its Kabul embassy.

Interrogations of 30 staff and friends reportedly found no wrongdoing, and Peter said he and Barbie were asked to thumbprint a nine-page CID report stating no crime had been identified.

Edwards also expressed concern that a recent data leak involving Afghan nationals who worked with the British military could complicate the couple’s situation. “The Taliban may try to use them as a bargaining chip,” she said.

Despite visits from a UK envoy and some medical aid, efforts to secure the Reynolds’ release are complicated by the lack of a British diplomatic presence in Afghanistan. 

Qatar, which maintains relations with the Taliban, is reportedly attempting to mediate.


Western aid cuts cede ground to China in Southeast Asia: study

Western aid cuts cede ground to China in Southeast Asia: study
Updated 20 July 2025
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Western aid cuts cede ground to China in Southeast Asia: study

Western aid cuts cede ground to China in Southeast Asia: study
  • Total official development finance to Southeast Asia grew ‘modestly’ to $29 billion in 2023
  • Higher-income countries already capture most of the region’s official development finance

SYDNEY: China is set to expand its influence over Southeast Asia’s development as the Trump administration and other Western donors slash aid, a study by an Australian think tank said Sunday.

The region is in an “uncertain moment,” facing cuts in official development finance from the West as well as “especially punitive” US trade tariffs, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute said.

“Declining Western aid risks ceding a greater role to China, though other Asian donors will also gain in importance,” it said.

Total official development finance to Southeast Asia – including grants, low-rate loans and other loans – grew “modestly” to $29 billion in 2023, the annual report said.

But US President Donald Trump has since halted about $60 billion in development assistance – most of the United States’ overseas aid program.

Seven European countries – including France and Germany – and the European Union have announced $17.2 billion in aid cuts to be implemented between 2025 and 2029, it said.

And the United Kingdom has said it is reducing annual aid by $7.6 billion, redirecting government money toward defense.

Based on recent announcements, overall official development finance to Southeast Asia will fall by more than $2 billion by 2026, the study projected.

“These cuts will hit Southeast Asia hard,” it said.

“Poorer countries and social sector priorities such as health, education, and civil society support that rely on bilateral aid funding are likely to lose out the most.”

Higher-income countries already capture most of the region’s official development finance, said the institute’s Southeast Asia Aid Map report.

Poorer countries such as East Timor, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are being left behind, creating a deepening divide that could undermine long-term stability, equity and resilience, it warned.

Despite substantial economic development across most of Southeast Asia, around 86 million people still live on less than $3.65 a day, it said.

“The center of gravity in Southeast Asia’s development finance landscape looks set to drift East, notably to Beijing but also Tokyo and Seoul,” the study said.

As trade ties with the United States have weakened, Southeast Asian countries’ development options could shrink, it said, leaving them with less leverage to negotiate favorable terms with Beijing.

“China’s relative importance as a development actor in the region will rise as Western development support recedes,” it said.

Beijing’s development finance to the region rose by $1.6 billion to $4.9 billion in 2023 – mostly through big infrastructure projects such as rail links in Indonesia and Malaysia, the report said.

At the same time, China’s infrastructure commitments to Southeast Asia surged fourfold to almost $10 billion, largely due to the revival of the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port project in Myanmar.

By contrast, Western alternative infrastructure projects had failed to materialize in recent years, the study said.

“Similarly, Western promises to support the region’s clean energy transition have yet to translate into more projects on the ground – of global concern given coal-dependent Southeast Asia is a major source of rapidly growing carbon emissions.”


Modi to visit London this week as India-UK trade pact nears signing

Modi to visit London this week as India-UK trade pact nears signing
Updated 20 July 2025
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Modi to visit London this week as India-UK trade pact nears signing

Modi to visit London this week as India-UK trade pact nears signing
  • Deal-in-principle was announced by Modi and Starmer in May
  • India is also in talks with EU to conclude FTA by the end of 2025

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the UK this week, the Indian government said on Sunday, as the countries prepare to formally sign a long-pending bilateral free trade agreement.

Modi’s two-day trip on the invitation of his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, will start on Wednesday.

“During the visit, the two sides will also review the progress of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) with a specific focus on trade and economy, technology and innovation, defence and security, climate, health, education and people-to-people ties,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday.

Launched in January 2022, the FTA negotiations between India and the UK were set to conclude the same year, but despite more than a dozen formal rounds, talks have stalled over issues like tariffs, rules of origin and mobility for services professionals.

A deal-in-principle was announced by Modi and Starmer in May, and India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was in London last month, with his office saying the visit aimed at charting out a “clear, time-bound road map for its finalization and implementation.”

At the same time, India is in ongoing talks with the US, which is seeking broader access to several key sectors, including agriculture, automobiles, steel, and aluminum — a concession New Delhi resists. Without a deal, Indian exports could face a 26–27 percent “reciprocal” tariff imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration starting Aug. 1.

The FTA with the UK could offer India more predictability in economic matters, according to Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation.

“This is going to be an important marker in the India-UK relationship, and India signaling to the world, particularly in the age of Trump — where there is so much unpredictability and volatility — that any kind of predictability that comes in with other partners is a benefit for every side,” he told Arab News.

“In this case, the UK and India would be hoping that this gives them greater predictability in their economic partnership, thereby reducing some of the challenges that continue to emanate from Washington.”

The pact would also signal to other partners that India is willing to engage on economic matters.

India is also in talks with the EU to conclude a comprehensive FTA by the end of 2025.

“This is a very important signal to other interlocutors, including the EU and US, that India will be willing to engage creatively on concluding these FTAs,” Pant said.

“This FTA is also crucial for a post-Brexit UK that is trying to retain its economic relevance around the world.”