White House Confirms ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan's First Target Of US Sanctions

Prosecutor ICC Karim Khan. (Wikimedia Commons/Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken)

JAKARTA - Attorney for the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan was the first person to face economic and travel sanctions passed by United States President Donald Trump targeting a war crime court over the investigation of US citizens or allies.

Khan, who is a British national, was named on Monday in an attachment to an executive order signed by President Trump last week.

Earlier, Reuters reported on Friday that Prosecutor Khan had been appointed by Washington.

The sanctions, which were repeated actions taken by President Trump during his first term of office, included freezing their designated US assets, barring them and their families from visiting the United States.

The ICC on Friday condemned the sanctions, pledging to support its staff and "continue to provide justice and hope to millions of victims of innocent atrocities around the world, in all situations it faces."

Court officials met in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), which opened in 2002, has international jurisdictions to try genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred to by the UN Security Council.

Under an agreement between the United Nations and Washington, Khan should be able to travel routinely to New York to brief the UN Security Council on the cases he has referred to a court in The Hague, the Netherlands.

It is known, the Security Council has referred the situation in Libya and the Darfur region of Sudan to the ICC.

"We believe that any restrictions taken against individuals will be implemented consistently with the obligations of the host country under the UN Headquarters agreement," UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday.