The Government of USA withdrew this Wednesday the sanctions imposed against Francesca Albanesespecial rapporteur for United Nations for the occupied palestinian territoriesa week after a federal judge in Washington suspend the measures imposed by the Trump Administration in 2025 against the Italian lawyer.
The update published by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Albanese’s name from the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), revoking the ban on the rapporteur entering the United States and canceling the financial constraints set against him.
On May 13, a federal court in Washington temporarily suspended the sanctions considering that they were possibly an unconstitutional restriction that threatened the freedom of expression.
Albanese’s family, based in the United States, had denounced the measures imposed by the president, Donald Trumpconsidering that the rapporteur had been limited in her personal life, without being able to access her home in Washington, where her daughter, who is a US citizen, lives.
The Donald Trump Administration imposed sanctions against Albanese in July 2025 under the program of measures linked to the International Criminal Court (CPI), after the rapporteur criticized the Israeli offensive in Gaza and asked to investigate possible war crimes committed by Israel and the US authorities.
Washington then accused the UN expert of promoting actions against allies and officials of USA before international courts.
The elimination of sanctions by the Treasury contradicts the position of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubioissued last February, which in a statement had considered Albanese as someone who was propagating a “legal war” against the United States.
