The four ICC judges sanctioned by the US for Palestine and Afghanistan work

Middle East Eye

a day ago

The US State Department announced sanctions on Thursday against four judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), targeting them over investigations involving the United States and its ally Israel.
The move follows the designation of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan in February, under an executive order issued by US President Donald Trump shortly after he was reinaugurated.
The governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovenia have been among the first to denounce the sanctions as an attempt to obstruct the work of the court.
The sanctioned judges are: ICC Second Vice-President Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin), Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza (Peru) and Beti Hohler (Slovenia).
Alapini-Gansou and Hohler were targeted for their role as Pre-Trial judges in issuing arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The charges involve alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.
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The Pre-Trial chamber that issued the warrants also included French Judge Nicolas Guillou, who was not subject to US sanctions.
Judges Bossa and Ibanez Carranza were sanctioned for their participation in a 2020 ICC appeals chamber decision that allowed an investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003.
The scope of that investigation included the Taliban, Afghan National Security Forces, and US military and CIA personnel. These sanctions were imposed despite a 2021 decision by the ICC prosecutor to deprioritise investigations involving US nationals.
The ICC has a total of 18 judges who serve in different chambers, including the Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals chambers.
Judges are nominated by state parties to the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, and then elected by the Assembly of States Parties, the court's governing body.
Judges must demonstrate high moral character, impartiality and integrity, meeting the qualifications required in their home countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices.
Once elected, ICC judges serve a non-renewable nine-year term.
Below are the profiles of the four judges sanctioned by the Trump administration on 5 June 2025.
Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda)
Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa is a Ugandan jurist currently serving as a judge on the Appeals Chamber of the ICC, to which she was elected in 2017 and sworn in in March 2018.
She has participated in appellate proceedings before the ICC concerning several landmark cases, including The Prosecutor v Bosco Ntaganda and The Prosecutor v Dominic Ongwen.
According to her official profile, Judge Bossa joined the ICC after an extensive judicial career spanning national, regional and international legal bodies.
She previously served on the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (2012-2018), the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (2014-2018), and Uganda's Court of Appeal (2013-2018). Earlier, she held judicial roles at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (2003-2013), the East African Court of Justice (2001-2006), and the High Court of Uganda (1997-2013).
Before her judicial appointments, Bossa practised law privately between 1988 and 1997, and lectured at Uganda's Law Development Centre from 1980 to 1997. During that period, she was actively involved in human rights work, often representing disadvantaged women in court. She also played a central role in establishing and leading several NGOs focused on legal advocacy and support for individuals living with HIV and AIDS.
Her professional commitments extended to legal institutions at both national and international levels. She was vice chairperson of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (1993-1999), led the Legal Aid Clinics at the Law Development Centre (1999-2001), and served as president of the Uganda Law Society (1993-1995). She also chaired the Uganda Law Council (1998-2003) and the National Steering Committee on Community Service (1997-2000).
Judge Bossa is affiliated with several professional organisations, including the International Association of Women Judges and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights. She is also an honorary member of the International Commission of Jurists.
Judge Bossa holds a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from Uganda's Law Development Centre and a Master of Laws in public international law from the University of London.
Judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza (Peru)
Judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza, a Peruvian jurist, has served on the Appeals Chamber of the ICC since March 2018.
Elected by the Assembly of States Parties in December 2017, she is the first Peruvian to hold a judgeship at the ICC. From 2021 to 2024, she served as first vice-president of the court, contributing to its administrative leadership alongside her judicial responsibilities.
Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Ibanez Carranza held senior prosecutorial roles within Peru's national justice system, according to her official ICC profile.
She served as a senior national prosecutor in the country's specialised system for addressing terrorism, grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity. In this capacity, she also acted as the coordinator of 17 prosecutorial offices responsible for such cases.
During her tenure as a public prosecutor in her home country, Judge Ibanez Carranza implemented a range of victim-centred measures aimed at supporting reparations processes. These included efforts to search for missing persons, recover and identify remains from mass graves, and facilitate the return of those remains to victims' families. She also played a role in organising public ceremonies in which the Peruvian state issued official apologies and took part in operations to rescue children abducted by armed groups.
Her work extended beyond the national context, as she was appointed on multiple occasions to represent Peru before international bodies. These included the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE), among others.
Judge Ibanez Carranza holds a doctorate and a master's degree in criminal law from Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and degrees in law and political science from Universidad Nacional de Trujillo. She also spent over 20 years as a university lecturer, teaching criminal law, criminal procedure and human rights law.
Judge Ibanez Carranza has participated in appellate proceedings for landmark cases, including The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda and The Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen.
Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin)
Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, from Benin, is the second vice-president of the ICC and a member of Pre-Trial Chamber I.
She was a member of the Pre-Trial Chamber that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. On 13 November, a court in Moscow ordered her arrest in absentia over what the court said was an 'illegal' arrest warrant issued for Putin.
Alapini-Gansou began her term as an ICC judge on 11 March 2018.
Before joining the ICC, Alapini-Gansou served as chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Africa's primary human rights body (2009-2012), and as special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in Africa (2005-2009 and 2012-2017).
In 2011, she was appointed as a judge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the world's oldest international court.
Alapini-Gansou has served as a Pre-Trial judge in numerous cases, including those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Bolivia and Belarus.
Her educational background includes a joint postgraduate degree (DEA) from the Universities of Maastricht (Netherlands), Lome (Togo) and Bhutan and a university degree in common law from the Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 (France). She also has a master's in business law and judicial careers from the National University of Benin.
Judge Beti Hohler (Slovenia)
Judge Beti Hohler, from Slovenia, is a member of Pre-Trial Chamber I.
She was appointed to the chamber in October, following a sudden request for leave by her predecessor, Romanian Judge Iulia Motoc, on health grounds.
Hohler is also a member of Trial Chamber V at the ICC, currently presiding over The Prosecutor v Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona case.
She began her term as an ICC judge on 11 March 2024. Prior to this, she served as a trial lawyer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC.
Before joining the ICC in 2015, Hohler was an adviser for the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo.
In February 2015, she wrote a legal and policy briefing commenting on Palestine's accession to the ICC. In her analysis, Hohler explained the legal consequences of Palestine's membership, how Israel may challenge the court and the extent of the court's jurisdiction over Israelis and non-Palestinians. She concluded that 'with Palestine's accession to the statute, the legal framework has changed and the parties to the conflict would be wise to accept and respect that'.
Hohler began her career in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she served at the Court of Appeals before working as a senior associate at a law firm.
She regularly trains judges and advocates. Hohler is also co-founder of the Institute for International Legal and Advocacy Training in The Hague.
According to her official profile, Hohler is the recipient of several awards, including the 2012 EU Common Security and Defence Policy Service Medal, awarded for her service in the Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo.
She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and another one in international and European law from the University of Amsterdam.