The United States reintroduced sanctions against Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, on Wednesday. Just a week ago, the Donald Trump Administration had lifted the sanctions against her, after a federal judge in Washington suspended the measures imposed in 2025 by the Republican government against the Italian jurist. The decision was halted last Friday by an appeals court, which granted precautionary measures.
The Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, a U.S. document of more than 3,000 pages, has been updated to include Albanese’s name among those sanctioned. It is, in essence, a global blacklist that prevents her from using major credit cards or conducting banking transactions.
The measure is a clear retaliation for the Italian jurist’s criticism of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip and the treatment of Palestinians, including calls to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israeli authorities. The first time the Trump government imposed sanctions on Albanese was in July 2025, as part of a set of sanctions also applied to 11 judges, prosecutors, and jurists of the International Criminal Court (ICC). On that occasion, the U.S. government justified its decision by claiming it was a response to Albanese’s initiatives for the ICC to prosecute U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.
In the decision by the Washington federal judge suspending the sanctions, published on the 13th, the magistrate concluded that the Trump Administration likely violated her right to freedom of expression by imposing the measures following her criticism of Israel’s war ― a U.S. ally ― in Gaza. In a passage of the 26-page ruling, the judge stated that Albanese had done “nothing more than speak.”
The Republican administration filed an emergency motion with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the initial ruling, and last Friday, a panel of three judges from this court issued an administrative stay of the federal judge’s decision.
With this suspension, the U.S. government was able to reapply the designation of Albanese as a sanctioned foreign national. The appeals court order indicated that the measure was procedural in nature and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits” of the government’s appeal to suspend the lower court’s order.
The case was filed by Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, who also acts on behalf of their minor daughter. Cali and his daughter, who hold U.S. citizenship, will now be able to appeal the emergency motion.
In court, they allege, among other things, that the sanctions imposed on Albanese have limited her personal life by preventing her from traveling to her home in Washington and to the United Nations headquarters in New York, which would violate UN rules guaranteeing immunity for officials and collaborators of the organization. Her assets have also been frozen, and she can only use cash.
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