The work of Karim Khan, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, has ground to a halt since U.S. President Donald Trump slapped the top ICC official with sanctions, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Khan has lost access to his email, and his U.K. bank accounts have been frozen since Washington imposed the sanctions on Feb. 6, AP reported.
Citing current and former court officials, international attorneys and human rights advocates, the news wire reported that American staffers of the Hague-based court fear being arrested if they return to the United States.
In addition, some non-governmental organizations have halted their work with the ICC, and the leaders of one will not even reply to emails, according to the Associated Press report published on Thursday morning.
Staffers at an NGO said to play an “integral role in the court’s efforts to gather evidence and find witnesses” told the AP that the group had moved money out of the United States because they feared it might be seized.
Washington’s move has led ICC staffers to wonder whether the tribunal could survive the Trump administration, with one official telling the AP: “It’s hard to see how the court makes it through the next four years.”
A spokesperson for the International Criminal Court and its Office of the Prosecutor declined to comment on the report to the Associated Press.
Trump signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC on Feb. 6 over its investigation of Israel for alleged “war crimes” in the war against Hamas terrorism in the Gaza Strip and its decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The executive order includes a declaration of a national emergency to respond to what it describes as the court’s “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
The moves against the United States and its ally “set a dangerous precedent, directly endangering current and former U.S. personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces, by exposing them to harassment, abuse and possible arrest,” the order states.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 10 that Khan asked a woman who accused him of sexual assault to drop charges so he could issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. The warrant’s timing raised suspicions that Khan’s decision was calculated to deflect attention from the sex scandal, which came to light internally a few weeks earlier, it said.
Khan has denied any sexual misconduct and dismissed any link between the allegations and his pursuit of the Israeli warrants.
