French International Criminal Court Judge Nicolas Guillou said US sanctions imposed over the Benjamin Netanyahu arrest warrant have blocked his bank cards, travel bookings and access to major online services.
Guillou told Deutsche Welle that Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia cancelled his reservations, while Visa, Mastercard and American Express services remain largely unavailable because of the restrictions.
The United States placed Guillou and several other ICC judges on its sanctions list in February 2025. The measures also bar him from travelling to the US, freeze any assets he may hold there and prohibit US companies and citizens from providing services to him.
Guillou said the restrictions had forced him to live without services that most people now consider routine. He compared the experience to daily life before widespread internet access and mobile phones in the 1990s.
🇫🇷 French International Criminal Court (ICC) judge Nicolas Guillou, sanctioned by President Trump in August because of the court’s warrant for Netanyahu, says he has been cut off from basic financial and digital services.
“I discovered that almost all payment methods in France… https://t.co/4MNC5fMUZd pic.twitter.com/t5N52QRBL3
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 22, 2026The sanctions followed the ICC’s November 2024 decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The court said it found reasonable grounds to believe the two officials bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2024. The allegations included starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
Read: Mamdani Says NYC Cannot Enforce Netanyahu ICC Warrant
US President Donald Trump’s administration rejected the warrants and argued that the ICC lacked jurisdiction over Israel, which is not a member of the court.
Guillou said the sanctions would not change his commitment to the court’s work, warning that attacks on international institutions strengthen powerful states at the expense of the rule of law.
