ICC Making 'Significant Progress' Despite US Sanctions, Says Deputy Prosecutor

The deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said new US sanctions are already beginning to take effect on its staff, but insisted they have not hindered the court's work.

Nazhat Shameem Khan, who is co-running the office pending the appointment of a new chief prosecutor, said the court was so far continuing its work.

She said the Gaza war investigation and others had made 'significant progress' since war crimes arrest warrants were issued in November 2024 for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Galant; further applications from the prosecutor are being kept secret by order of the court.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions earlier this month, accusing the ICC — a frequent Trump administration target — of being a 'rogue court' and declaring: 'Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.'

The sanctions are not due to take effect until six months from October 9, the date of their announcement, but Khan said some staff had already encountered banking problems, as banks 'over comply' to minimise risk amid uncertainty over the measures' ultimate scope.

'These are sanctions imposed on the institutions and in principle, our individual members should not be impacted directly,' the Fijian deputy prosecutor said. 'But what I am hearing from members of our staff is that some of them are experiencing difficulties in banking.'

The court is working to insulate itself: it has switched 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 acknowledging it was impossible to anticipate the full impact when sanctions officially take effect.

The new sanctions target the whole institution, but the US first targeted 13 ICC staff in February 2025; Khan was one of them, and is accustomed to life under sanctions, including banking and insurance difficulties.

'Life without a credit card is inconvenient. It's amazing how many things we cannot do around the world, particularly in relation to travel, without a credit card,' she said, adding that her inconvenience pales when she visits refugee camps or atrocity sites: 'We see the faces of our victims for whom sanctions and credit cards are completely irrelevant. They just want justice.'

Sanctions are not the only disruption: formal investigations began in late November 2024 into sexual harassment allegations against former chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who denied the charges and was removed in July this year after a vote by member states.

Khan insisted investigative work on the Israel-Palestine file has not stalled; a court ruling earlier this year ordered all charges and warrant applications kept secret until judges decide they can be made public, creating an appearance that nothing is happening.

Announcing the sanctions, Rubio gave the ICC a six-month grace period to negotiate a solution, but what would satisfy the Trump administration, with its longstanding hostility to the court, remains unclear.

Earlier this month, the ICC pretrial chamber unsealed four arrest warrants against Taliban members on charges of gender persecution.

The court's registrar is negotiating with the EU over blocking the sanctions or protecting the court, and on Thursday the European Parliament awarded its Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to the court and its officials.

Khan called the vocal support 'a very important message that the staff at the court need to hear', adding: 'This is a court that provides an avenue of justice for victims who have nowhere else to go.'