ICC PROSECUTOR SLAMS ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ US SANCTIONS AGAINST HER

The outgoing prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) hit out at sanctions slapped on her by the Trump Administration in her final speech to an annual gathering of the court’s member-states before she leaves office next year, Mike Corder reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Fatou Bensouda noted at the start of her speech to the Assembly of States Parties that the court and her prosecution office were “subjected to unprecedented and wholly unacceptable threats, attacks and sanctions this past year.”

In September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a freeze on assets held in the US or subject to US law by Bensouda and the court’s head of jurisdiction, Phakiso Mochochoko. Earlier in the year, the US slapped a travel ban on Bensouda and other court officials investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte also slammed Bensouda for investigating allegations of human rights violations, summary executions and malicious prosecution in his bloody anti-drug and counter-insurgency campaigns.

The ICC has found basis to proceed with the prosecution of Duterte and his minions. Duterte was furious after the Philippines withdrew from the ICC and the Rome Statute that created it.

Bensouda said that the measures were an attack on the court and its member- states and represented “a dangerous precedent for a rule-based international system.” She added: “It is my sincere hope that the US reverses its aggressive policy of antagonism towards the court. No one wins from such attacks.”

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