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Add as a favourite source on Google Add DutchNews as a favourite source on GoogleDutch foreign minister Tom Berendsen has criticised the latest sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against officials of the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague.

Berendsen said international courts “must be able to freely carry out their mandates” after the measures were taken against the court’s president, Tomoko Akane, and senior prosecutor Abdoulaye Saye.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Akane and Saye had been “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.”

Seye was a member of the prosecution team that drafted the arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant 18 months ago.

Shortly afterwards Donald Trump issued an executive order authorising sanctions against ICC officials, such as freezing their bank accounts in the US and shutting them out of international payment systems.

The US and Israel are not signatories to the ICC’s founding statutes, but the government of Palestine is. The ICC ruled in 2021 that Gaza and the West Bank fell under its jurisdiction.

Continued support

Berendsen said in a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter: “The Netherlands disapproves of the latest sanctions against officials and staff of the International Criminal Court.”

He went on to offer to meet Akane “to discuss our continued support.” Berendsen did not directly condemn the US government’s actions.

The Netherlands disapproves of the latest sanctions against officials and staff of the International Criminal Court. International courts and tribunals must be able to freely carry out their mandates. 1/2

— Tom Berendsen (@ministerBZ) August 18, 2026

Akane said last year that the sanctions would “rapidly undermine the court’s operations”, while in recent months Rubio has stepped up his rhetoric against the ICC, accusing it of “waging a war against our country” and vowing to dismantle it “brick by brick”.

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