ICC Sanctions: Investigations Continue, Banks Already Wary

The International Criminal Court is facing pressure from two directions. On 9 October, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against the court, giving it six months to address Washington's concerns. He described the ICC as a "rogue court" and declared: "Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC." At the same time, the office of the prosecutor continues to operate under a separate cloud: formal investigations into allegations of sexual harassment against former chief prosecutor Karim Khan began in late November 2024, and he was removed by member states in July this year after denying the charges.

Nazhat Shameem Khan, who is co-running the office pending the appointment of a new chief prosecutor, said the sanctions have not halted any work. She said investigations into the Gaza war and other situations had made progress since warrants were issued in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Galant. No further Gaza charges have been announced since then, but a court ruling earlier this year requires all charges and warrant applications to remain secret until judges approve their release. "Even if we reach a stage of the investigations where it might be imminent, we may not discuss it publicly," she said. "And so while there might be an appearance that nothing is happening, I can assure you that there's significant progress in that particular situation as well as others."

The sanctions were announced on 9 October, but they do not take effect until six months later. Khan said some staff have already run into banking problems, describing banks as "over-complying" while the scope of the measures remains unclear. "These are sanctions imposed on the institutions and, in principle, our individual members should not be impacted directly," she said. "But again, what I am hearing from members of our staff is that some of them are experiencing difficulties in banking."

The court has begun moving its software from Microsoft to European alternatives and is negotiating with service providers over banking and health insurance. "All the investigations across all situations continue. We haven't made any decision based on the sanctions to reduce our capability or reduce our output," Khan said, while noting it was impossible to predict the full impact once the measures take effect. Khan was among 13 ICC staff first targeted by the US in February 2025. "Life without a credit card is inconvenient," she said.

Rubim claimed this month that "globalist 'experts' an ocean away" wanted the ICC to prosecute US citizens. Khan said she was unsure what he meant, adding: "we certainly haven't brought any Americans before the court." She said that if the reference was to Afghanistan, the priority there is offences committed against women, girls and other vulnerable groups by the Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan. This month, the court's pretrial chamber unsealed four arrest warrants against Taliban members on charges of gender persecution. The ICC registrar is negotiating with the EU over blocking the sanctions or protecting the court in other ways. On Thursday, the European Parliament awarded its Sakharov prize for freedom of thought to the court and its officials. The six-month period Rubio announced on 9 October runs until 9 April 2027.