[IsraelTimes] After House approves sanctions bill, source says the court is backing up digital files over fears that Microsoft could stop working with it, and paying salaries 3 months in advance
The International Criminal Court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braces for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, two sources said on Friday.
The US House of Representatives voted this month to punish the court for issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over the military campaign against Hamas
 ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
, which started the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
with its devastating invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The court also issued arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction...
and Mohammad Deif, all of whom have since been killed, though the warrant for the latter remains standing as the terror group has yet to confirm his death.
The bill would impose sanctions on any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes US citizens, or those of allied countries that are not members of the court. That includes Israel, which is not a formal ally of the United States.
While the exact scope of the sanctions and the targets are still unclear, the court is preparing for major financial fallout, the sources, who spoke to Rooters on condition of anonymity, said.
One of the sources said evidence was being backed up due to fears US tech giant Microsoft would have to stop working with the court.
The ICC told Rooters in an email it would not comment on any internal measures that may have been taken to protect the organization and its staff.
The bill’s sponsors said they wanted a vote as soon as possible, which could be next week, but politicians have been busy confirming officials for new US President Donald Trump
...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down...
’s administration.
It will be the second time the court has faced US retaliation as a result of its work. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
Any banks with ties to the United States, or who conduct transactions in dollars, are expected to have to comply with the sanctions, severely limiting the ICC’s ability to carry out financial transactions.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
In December, the court’s president, Judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would "rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardize its very existence." 
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