Report: ICC deputy prosecutor says court has insulated itself against US sanctions

Deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Nazhat Shameem Khan, has said that the court has insulated itself against potential court-wide sanctions from the US, according to the Financial Times.

“The law must prevail over power,” Khan told the newspaper.

The prospect of more US sanctions comes after Trump told the UN General Assembly this week that the ICC was “out of control” and an “evil group of people”, calling on the court’s member states to resign from the institution immediately.

His attacks on court have increased in his second term after the ICC issued an arrest warrant in 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

“I’m not waiting. I think the lesson in resilience, this lesson in dedication, in maintaining the work of the court, that’s now. That’s something we must do now,” Khan said.

The court has overhauled its systems, shifting its office software from Microsoft to Germany’s openDesk, and finding workarounds on banking and health insurance, she said. The court declined to elaborate on the workarounds in order to protect their effectiveness.

The tribunal has also been paying employees months in advance to mitigate any disruption to its payroll.

Khan said some individuals at the court who have been placed under sanctions had experienced “over-compliance” by institutions and had to “meander around sanctions to be able to survive them”.

ICC staff were told last year that more than 90 per cent of the court’s processes at that time relied on US technology systems.

Khan said that while the provisions were still a “work in progress”, the court had taken considerable strides to minimise the impact of any restrictions.