Judge blocks US sanctions against UN official who called for war crimes prosecution in Gaza
Kyiv • UNN
A US court has blocked sanctions against Francesca Albanese due to violations of free speech rights. The restrictions were imposed following her calls for an investigation into Israel's actions.
A federal judge has blocked Trump administration sanctions against United Nations official Francesca Albanese, who was accused of antisemitism over her calls to bring war crimes charges against Israeli officials for their actions in Gaza. This was reported by Politico, according to UNN.
Details
Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, last July based on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that allows such measures against individuals "directly involved" in International Criminal Court investigations related to alleged crimes in Gaza.
However, in a ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon stated that the administration's sanctions against Albanese violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because they are based solely on her calls for the ICC to conduct investigations and criminal prosecutions.
"Albanese did nothing but speak!" Leon wrote in the 26-page decision, which was liberally peppered with his signature exclamation points. "Indisputably, her recommendations are not binding on the ICC's actions—they are nothing more than her opinion."
Justice Department lawyers argued that Albanese, an Italian citizen currently living with her family in Tunisia, cannot invoke the First Amendment because she is not American and made her statements outside the U.S. However, Leon noted that her "extensive ties" to the U.S., including a daughter born while the family lived in Washington and a home the family owns in Washington, give Albanese grounds to claim free speech protection.
Albanese and her husband complained that the U.S. sanctions effectively cut them off from the international banking system, made travel to the U.S. impossible, and even led to the family's health insurer refusing to pay for services received by Albanese.
The Trump administration argued that the licenses it issued, which allowed some transactions related to the family's property in Washington and "necessary" support for their daughter—a U.S. citizen—mitigated the impact of the sanctions.
"Really!" the judge responded, calling the limits of those licenses too vague to provide the U.S. government with legal protection against the lawsuit filed in February by Albanese's husband, World Bank economist Massimiliano Cali, and their daughter.
Leon also concluded that the "parental license" issued by the U.S. government interferes with Albanese's "constitutionally protected" relationship with her daughter. "It is not clear from the materials provided to me how the plaintiffs could distinguish between necessary and non-essential transactions in the context of their family relationship," the judge wrote.
Rubio's sanctions decision claimed that Albanese "blatantly spread antisemitism." She denies this and asserts that certain forces in Israel use accusations of antisemitism to justify war crimes. The Israeli government denies committing war crimes in Gaza and has condemned the ICC process as hopelessly biased.
The White House referred a request for comment to the State Department, which did not provide an immediate response. The Justice Department also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Albanese stated that Leon's decision reaffirmed her confidence in the American justice system.