Canadian judge Kimberly Prost is unable to use credit cards, transfer money or book everyday services in what she calls an attack on the independence of the judiciary

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/24014988

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This summer Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrived at her home in The Hague and, as was her habit, called out “Alexa”.

There was silence. The voice-activated assistant did not respond. “Alexa was dead. She wouldn’t talk to me,” Prost recalled in an interview with The Irish Times.

Prost had been added to the United States’ sanctions list, because in 2020 she ruled to authorise an investigation into possible atrocities in Afghanistan, including by US troops. Amazon, obliged to implement the sanctions as a US company, had cancelled her account.

It was just the start of what Prost describes as a “pervasive, negative effect” of the sanctions across all aspects of her life, which has shut her out from much of the international banking system.

  • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    12 hours ago

    I didn’t know that Europe has a financial system that work indecently independently from American one.

    For example:

    US has Visa, Mastercard and American Express. China has Union Pay.

    What does Europe have?

    • pousserapiere@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 hours ago

      Many national systems.

      Direct free instantaneous bank transfers in the SEPA member states. And the systems built upon it like ideal/wero/blue chip and others.

      As far as I know most of Europe favors debit instead of credit cards. Financial life in the EU is organised completely differently from North America (well, at least from USA and Canada, haven’t been to Mexico yet).