US Congress to Impose Sanctions on ICC

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (AFP)
US House Speaker Mike Johnson (AFP)
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US Congress to Impose Sanctions on ICC

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (AFP)
US House Speaker Mike Johnson (AFP)

House Republicans this week are set to consider a bill that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a decision by its top prosecutor last month to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The House Rules Committee hearing was held this week to discuss the proposed bill.
“We think it’s important for Republicans and Democrats to stand together and send a message to the international community that the abuses of the ICC cannot be allowed to go forward,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Speaking to ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the White House opposing Republicans' bill to sanction the ICC after it put out arrest warrants on Israeli officials, he said, “The idea that President Biden would backtrack on that and disagree with us that we should impose sanctions on ICC officials when they are threatening to arrest the Prime Minister of Israel and the Defense Minister...is to us unconscionable.”
Biden is not only facing Republican criticism. He is also in disaccord with his own Democratic Party. A large number of Democrats support efforts to impose sanctions on the ICC and therefore, enhancing the bill's chances of being passed in the House.
The lawmakers backing the bill accuse the ICC of “historic bias” against Israel.
In a letter written by more than 20 Democrats, the lawmakers called on the Biden administration “to consult with Congress to immediately impose sanctions against the ICC's Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan and any other officials who have demonstrated undue bias in their actions.”
The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act
According to the proposed bill, “the President shall impose sanctions on the ICC not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of the Act if the International Criminal Court is engaging in any attempt to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person.”
The protected persons are US military personnel, US officials, and officials and military personnel of certain allied countries.
The bill notes that the sanctions will be imposed on ICC members and their immediate family members and to deny them a visa or other documentation to enter the United States.
Also, it calls on the President to exercise all of his powers to block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property of any foreign person affected by the sanctions.
The bill also clarifies that the United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute or members of the ICC, and therefore the Court has no legitimacy or jurisdiction over the United States or Israel.
Last week, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that the sanctions were not the right answer.

 

 



Man Who Stabbed Author Salman Rushdie on Stage Has Been Sentenced to 25 years in Prison

Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
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Man Who Stabbed Author Salman Rushdie on Stage Has Been Sentenced to 25 years in Prison

Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo
Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Robert Frank/File Photo

The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison.
A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February, The AP news reported.
Rushdie did not return to court to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.
Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.
Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
In requesting the maximum sentence, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt told the judge that Matar “chose this. He designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it.”
Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had a otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate.
Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center. The author of “Midnight's Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh" and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”
Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.
Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he traveled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.
Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.
Jurors in Matar's first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.