ICC judge believes court can survive US sanctions

He said this in an exclusive comment to an Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague.

“The court can survive this, its members will unite and refuse to be intimidated,” he said.

According to him, “most of the rhetoric shows that they [the Trump administration] think that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is hostile to the United States and Israel. There is a basic misunderstanding that the ICC only deals with individual criminal responsibility, for which the Rome Statute clearly defines jurisdiction. They also do not understand the principle and effect of complementarity. I would note that when the ICC took on Putin, the United States was clearly enthusiastic about it,” he said.

He also noted that “Ukraine must remain firm in its position… both literally and legally, and this suggests the need to create a special tribunal to consider the crime of aggression.”

As Ukrinform reported, the International Criminal Court, located in The Hague, condemns the signed decree of US President Trump on sanctions against the ICC.