ICC hits back at US sanctions, warns 'history will judge this moment'

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court said Friday that US sanctions on the institution were an attack on international law and warned that "history will judge this moment."

The sanctions are "an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law", said the court in a statement.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier Friday that Washington would ban transactions with what he called a "rogue court," escalating a long-running campaign by President Donald Trump's administration against the court.

The court said such actions were aimed at intimidating ICC staff and disrupting its activities, vowing it would not be deterred.

"The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes," said ICC President Tomoko Akane in the statement.

The statement called on the ICC's 125 members to side with the institution, saying: "Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it."

"Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack," said the court.--AFP