{"id":2725,"date":"2021-08-29T09:01:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T09:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction"},"modified":"2021-08-29T09:01:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T09:01:18","slug":"u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction","title":{"rendered":"U.S lifts Lesotho national ICC official\u2019s sanction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The United States (US) government has lifted sanctions on two International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, a Lesotho national, Phakiso Mochochoko, and his colleague Fatou Bensouda.<\/p>\n

Mochochoko is ICC Director of Jurisdiction, Complementary and Cooperation while his colleague Fatou holds the position of Chief within the same institution \u2013 the lifting of their ban is effective from April 2.<\/p>\n

The US imposed sanctions on Mochochoko and Bensouda last year, allegedly over ICC investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

However, announcing the sanctions, then Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, did not give any specific reasons for the move other than to say the ICC \u201ccontinues to target Americans\u201d and that Bensouda was \u201cmaterially assisting\u201d that alleged effort.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury issued a statement saying Mochochoko and Bensouda had been deemed \u201cspecially designated nationals\u201d, grouping them alongside terrorists and narcotics traffickers, blocking their assets and prohibited US citizens from having any dealings with them.<\/p>\n

Incumbent US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, announced this week that the country\u2019s new administration has assessed that the imposition of economic sanctions and VISA restrictions on the two officials by the previous administration was inappropriate and ineffective.<\/p>\n

Blinken said the new government has, instead, opted to raise its concerns about Afghanistan and Palestinian cases through engagement with all stakeholders in the ICC process rather than though the imposition of sanctions.<\/p>\n

Following the 2020 imposition of sanctions of Lesotho national local civic body, Development for Peace Education (DPE), called on the United States of America to withdraw sanctions on Mochochoko and his colleague.<\/p>\n

The civil society and ordinary citizens at the DPE virtual meeting of September 7, 2020, called that the Trump administration should \u201cretract its pronouncement to add Ms Fatou Bensouda citizen of Djibouti and Mr Phakiso Mochochoko citizen of Lesotho, both Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to the list of Specially Designated Nationals in the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Unites States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement added that: \u201cThe meeting that was called by DPE deliberated on this issue and reached a decision to petition AU (African Union) Security and Peace Council as a port of entry into mobilising African leaders to stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

DPE said \u201cthe highly charged meeting\u201d mandated two people to develop a petition \u201cwhich shall be send to the Council and be delivered to a number of centres in Lesotho and outside\u201d. \u201cThe petition shall be circulated for signatures,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The United States (US) government has lifted sanctions on two International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, a Lesotho national, Phakiso Mochochoko, and his colleague Fatou Bensouda. Mochochoko is ICC Director of Jurisdiction, Complementary and Cooperation while his colleague Fatou holds the position of Chief within the same institution \u2013 the lifting of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[233,246,245,304],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S lifts Lesotho national ICC official\u2019s sanction - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S lifts Lesotho national ICC official\u2019s sanction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. The United States (US) government has lifted sanctions on two International Criminal Court (ICC) officials, a Lesotho national, Phakiso Mochochoko, and his colleague Fatou Bensouda. Mochochoko is ICC Director of Jurisdiction, Complementary and Cooperation while his colleague Fatou holds the position of Chief within the same institution \u2013 the lifting of their […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-29T09:01:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612b58b1dee3c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"U.S lifts Lesotho national ICC official\u2019s sanction\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-29T09:01:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\"},\"wordCount\":413,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/08\/img-612b58b1dee3c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"U.S\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/u-s-lifts-lesotho-national-icc-officials-sanction\",\"name\":\"U.S lifts Lesotho national ICC official\u2019s sanction - 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