The International Criminal Court said on the 19th that U.S. sanctions on the court president, Japanese judge Tomoko Akane, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye of the Office of the Prosecutor are a “blatant attack” on the court’s independence. The ICC said it is independently exercising judicial functions under the Rome Statute; to date nine of the court’s 18 judges, two deputy prosecutors, a former prosecutor and one staff member have been sanctioned by the U.S.