US Sanctions UN Official for Aiding ICC Investigations Into US, Israeli Nationals
The U.S. this week sanctioned U.N. official Francesca Paola Albanese for working with the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. or Israeli nationals with ties to alleged human rights abuses being carried out by Israel against Palestinians. The State Department said Albanese is aiding with that investigatory work "without the consent of" the U.S. and Israel. Neither country is a party to the Rome Statute -- the treaty that established the ICC -- "making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries," the State Department said.
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The agency accused Albanese -- the U.N.'s special rapporteur for human rights in Palestinian territories -- of having "spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West." Albanese earlier this month told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Israel's attacks in Gaza represent "one of the cruelest genocides in modern history."
The State Department also said Albanese had written "threatening letters" to American finance, technology, defense, energy and hospitality companies with "extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives." These letters are "campaigns of political and economic warfare," the agency said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued new General License 8 to authorize the wind-down of transactions with Albanese that would normally be blocked under the International Criminal Court-Related Sanctions Regulations. Those transactions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. ET Aug. 8 as long as "any payment to a blocked person is made into a blocked account in accordance with" OFAC regulations.