The family of the United Nations rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, filed a lawsuit this Wednesday against the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. The complaint, the details of which elDiario.es has learned, denounces the exceptional sanctions that the United States Government has imposed on Albanese for his investigative work and denunciation of Israeli crimes.
In her reports as a UN rapporteur, Albanese has highlighted violations of international law committed by the Israeli Government, and has provided information on the role of Israeli leaders in the genocide in Gaza, as well as that of other countries and international companies.
The civil lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, maintains that the Trump Administration violated the rights of the UN rapporteur protected by the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, by “unreasonably” seizing her assets without due process, and that it also violated sanctions laws. Therefore, it requests the court to declare these sanctions unconstitutional.
The complaint was filed by Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, and her minor daughter, born in the United States, whose name is not revealed in the lawsuit. The US sanctions against the UN rapporteur, imposed on July 9, 2025, prevent her from carrying out transactions with US citizens and companies – which has meant blocking her email accounts or credit cards – as well as her entry into the country and access to her own income in European banks.
The plaintiffs point out that the message sent by the sanctions against the UN rapporteur “is clear: investigative and reporting activities that are not aligned with the current political priorities of the United States Government risk sanctions, unilateral punitive actions and the almost complete interruption of the ability of human rights officials to carry out their functions.”
Unprecedented
Like her, eleven judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court and several Palestinian NGOs also suffer sanctions from the Trump Government, with consequences in their daily lives similar to those experienced by Albanese. International human rights organizations have warned of the damage that this type of punishment causes to the application of international law and the fulfillment of the tasks of the Hague Tribunal and the work of Albanese commissioned by the United Nations. The sanctions against the UN rapporteur are unprecedented, there are no similar precedents in the past.
The lawsuit filed this Wednesday details how this punishment takes a financial and professional toll on Albanese, as it prevents him from accessing the global financial system – based on the dollar – his bank accounts, his apartment in Washington DC or maintaining his ties with several American universities. This means that the United Nations rapporteur can only use cash.
In addition, the sanctions prevent her husband from entering the United States, where the main headquarters of the World Bank, the organization where he works, is located. Their daughter, a US citizen, cannot return to her country of birth or access her apartment in Washington.
In a recent interview with elDiario.es, the United Nations rapporteur said that in recent months she has not been able to access her bank account, her income, and asked for help from governments willing to defend her: “I need a State to guarantee me that right, to assume the responsibility of saying to the banks: ‘We are responsible for it’. It is enough for a country to do the right thing to stop these abuses.”
“Why do I have to be treated like a terrorist, like a drug trafficker, while also being a member of the UN?” the rapporteur asked herself in conversation with this medium. The denunciation of this type of sanctions is, in the words of Albanese, “an interest shared by all those who believe in international law, in accountability and in a world governed by rules and not by force or intimidation.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
