A French judge who presided over a panel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) that issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 said he was struggling with basic daily transactions after being placed on a US sanctions list, noting that almost all payment systems in France were controlled by the Americans and he was excluded from them.
According to foreign media, According to the Telegraph, Nicolas Gouyou, a former judge of the Special Court for Kosovo, said he could no longer use his bank card, order from Amazon, book through Airbnb or conduct transactions on Expedia and Booking.com.
“We are going back 30 years in time,” he told France TV. “It’s like a time machine that takes us back to a pre-digital world.”
The television station said French President Emmanuel Macron had written seven letters requesting the lifting of sanctions, but US authorities had yet to provide a positive response.
A source at the Elysee told the broadcaster that France was continuing to pursue the issue through diplomacy and regretted the lack of a positive response from Washington.
Gouyou said he believed he would remain on the sanctions list for the duration of US President Donald Trump’s second term.
The judge warned of wider consequences for democratic institutions.
“If prosecutors are afraid to prosecute, if lawyers are afraid to defend, if judges are afraid to judge, if parliamentarians are afraid to pass laws and if ministers are afraid to implement them, there is no more democracy,” he said, noting that these people would act “exclusively out of fear” of punishment.
On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip from at least October 8, 2023 to May 20, 2024.
Israel launched a war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, killing more than 71,000 people, injuring over 172,000, and destroying about 90% of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the UN at around $70 billion.
Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, Israel has continued its daily attacks, killing at least 677 Palestinians and wounding 1,813 others since then, according to the Gaza Health Ministry
