ICC choose on what U.S. sanctions imply for her and international courts : NPR
The International Criminal Court in The Hague on Sept. 23.
Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP by way of Getty Images
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Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP by way of Getty Images
If you need to see how far U.S. sanctions can attain, ask Kimberly Prost’s Alexa.
After the United States sanctioned her, the Canadian choose on the International Criminal Court started dropping entry to companies from corporations in numerous international locations. Her bank cards have been additionally canceled.
“You begin to lose companies from American corporations, Amazon, Google, doubtlessly Apple, no matter it might be,” she informed Morning Edition. “Completely randomly, although, you do not know when one thing’s going to occur.”
One of these moments got here throughout an bizarre second at house.
“I went house and Alexa would not discuss to me,” she informed NPR’s Steve Inskeep.
Her bank cards, issued within the Netherlands and Canada, have been canceled. She has managed to maintain some financial institution accounts, however says her banking companies are extraordinarily restricted and even small transfers will be blocked.
The sanctions themselves are American. Still, companies overseas could comply as a result of they’ve ties to the U.S.
“We have this huge overcompliance by corporations,” she mentioned.
One of probably the most critical examples is her medical insurance. Prost receives protection by way of AXA, the French firm that gives insurance coverage for the courtroom. She says the corporate has refused to pay her claims regardless that it isn’t legally required to observe the U.S. sanctions.
“It’s a industry determination,” she mentioned.
Her cellphone nonetheless works — “thus far” — however some electronic mail, cloud and different expertise companies are restricted.
She has lived with the restrictions for greater than a yr.
Why was she sanctioned?
Prost mentioned her sanction stems from Trump’s govt order focusing on ICC officers concerned in instances regarding Israel and Gaza or Afghanistan.
Her personal case goes again six years.
At the time, Prost was briefly serving on the ICC’s Appeals Chamber when prosecutors sought authorization to open an investigation into alleged crimes linked to the conflict in Afghanistan. Prost and 4 different judges unanimously authorised the request.
The investigation coated alleged crimes involving the Taliban and ISIS and included what Prost described as “a small part associated to the United States.”
That U.S. part was by no means pursued and was later deprioritized by prosecutors, she mentioned.
“And it’s for that call that I’m sanctioned,” Prost mentioned.
Her function was judicial, not investigative. She mentioned the appeals judges have been required to resolve whether or not prosecutors had the right authorized foundation and jurisdiction to proceed — comparable, she mentioned, to a choose authorizing a search warrant.
“There is not any investigation associated to the American part in Afghanistan, and I’ve nothing to do with the Israel-Gaza state of affairs,” Prost mentioned.
Her designation got here amid a a lot wider confrontation between Washington and the ICC that intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel and the following conflict in Gaza.
For Prost, the broader concern is what sanctions like these imply for judges on cross-border courts making choices from the bench.
“We are judges, and we’re being informed that reasonably than deciding our instances on the idea of the information and the regulation earlier than us, as we’re obligation sure to do, we’re being requested to resolve the instances or not resolve them in accordance with the needs of the U.S. authorities,” she mentioned.
By August 2026, 9 of the courtroom’s 18 judges have been beneath U.S. sanctions, together with each deputy prosecutors, its former prosecutor and one employees member.
The Trump administration has threatened to go additional, saying what it referred to as a “whole-of-government marketing campaign” to “systematically dismantle” the ICC over its investigations involving Americans and Israelis.
NPR reached out to the State Department for extra details about whether or not and when the administration plans to impose further sanctions on the courtroom. The division didn’t reply.
Prost is difficult the sanction in U.S. courtroom. In June, she and fellow ICC judges Reine Alapini-Gansou and Solomy Balungi Bossa sued President Trump and different administration officers in federal courtroom in New York, arguing that the measures have been illegal.
The work goes on in The Hague
For now, the sanctions have modified how she lives outdoors the courtroom, however not the work she continues to do inside it.
Her present case includes alleged crimes tied to the jihadist takeover of Timbuktu in Mali, together with persecution, torture and inhumane remedy.
“I’ll by no means stop my job as a choose,” Prost mentioned. “These strategies that they are utilizing, these coercive measures, are utterly futile.”
She mentioned she and different sanctioned judges and prosecutors proceed to do their jobs “objectively, independently and in accordance with the oath that we have taken.”
The radio interview was produced by Ava Pukatch, and the net model was edited by Treye Green.
