Microsoft throws spox under the bus after Parliament testimony on ICC email kerfuffle
Apologizes for 'inaccuracy'
EXCLUSIVE Microsoft has said one of its leading spokespeople gave testimony to the UK Parliament containing an "inaccuracy" with regard to its dealings with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to US sanctions.
The software and cloud biz has now asked for the record to be changed after Hugh Milward, Microsoft senior director of corporate, external and Legal, told the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee that the ICC — "not Microsoft" — decided to turn off email services to Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor sanctioned by US President Donald Trump.
Speaking to MPs on Tuesday last week, Milward said: "There was a sanction — a US government sanction — against a single individual. We worked with the ICC throughout the whole period, and they were fully aware of all of the discussions that were taking place between us, the US government, and the ICC around this individual, and it was the ICC's decision to terminate and to respond to that...sanction, not Microsoft's. So we were not...put in a position where we were terminating the agreement. We were working with the ICC throughout."
In response to a follow-up question pointing out that Microsoft had to follow US sanctions, Milward said: "We did, and it was the ICC that has the ability to switch on and off their own users. It's the ICC that makes a decision as to whether or not they continue to provide service to one of their employees in response to the US sanction."
The Register approached Microsoft for further comment. A spokesperson said in a statement: "We have apologized to the Business and Trade Committee for the inaccuracy and asked for the record of the hearing to be corrected."
"We were in touch with the ICC throughout the process that resulted in the disconnection of its sanctioned official from Microsoft services. At no point did Microsoft cease or suspend its services to the ICC."
The suspension of Khan's Microsoft email service has been cited as one of the factors causing booming investment in sovereign cloud services in Europe, which Gartner estimates will more than triple from 2025 to 2027 as geopolitical tensions drive investment in homegrown services. Uncertainty has driven C-level directors of European organizations to ask whether they can still rely on digital infrastructure from US-based service providers, Rene Buest, Gartner senior director analyst, told The Register.
Khan was among those sanctioned by the US over the ICC's efforts to prosecute Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Khan later had access to Microsoft services temporarily cut in the spring of last year. At the time, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company had not cut services to the ICC, yet observers worried the two issues were linked. The court later decided to adopt OpenDesk, an open source office and collaboration suite delivered by the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS).
It was reported in the Dutch press that Microsoft told the ICC the sanctions meant it had to deny Khan access to its services. The report said the ICC would have to end the chief prosecutor's access to the services, otherwise Microsoft would end the email services for the whole organization. The ICC then decided to suspend Kahn's email services.
The Register spoke to technology activist and former regulator of Dutch intelligence services, Bert Hubert, who was the source of the information. He confirmed it was accurately reported.
The Register has offered Microsoft the opportunity to respond on this point. The corporation has so far declined to add to its earlier statement.
We asked the Business and Trade Committee if it has agreed to amend the record and whether it plans to ask Milward further questions.
The guide to parliamentary practice, Erskine May, says witnesses can submit proposed alterations "confined to the correction of inaccuracies in the reporting of the evidence, or to the correction of matters of fact which do not materially alter the sense of the answer".
The clerks may also allow witnesses to add further information, a footnote to the relevant answer or in a supplementary memo, it says. Since Microsoft asked for the record of the hearing to be corrected the Committee has published a transcript which records Milward's evidence as spoken at the time. No further notes appear to have been added.
In April last year, Microsoft announced a European Digital Resilience Commitment which it said would include in all of its contracts with European national governments and the European Commission.
"We will make this commitment legally binding on Microsoft Corporation and all its subsidiaries," it said in a blog post. The company said it would "continue our fight to protect the rights of European customers."
In June 2025, Microsoft admitted under oath in a French court that it couldn't guarantee digital sovereignty, if in the event of a legally justified injunction under the US Cloud Act, American authorities demanded access to data held on Microsoft hosted server on foreign soil.
The topic of digital sovereignty is top of the agenda for customers in Europe since Donald Trump returned to power. His rhetoric and policies have sown seeds of mistrust between the US and Europe.
US tech corporations are caught in the middle of this. AWS, Microsoft, and Google have responded by trying to launch what they term as digital sovereign cloud solutions, though the jury is out on whether they will convince customers in Europe of their efficacy.
Airbus last month issued a tender for a European sovereign cloud to move sensitive workloads into digitally sovereign European cloud. It previously told The Register the risk of business interruption from being reliant on US tech providers was low, but there would be a high business impact if services were pulled. ®
* (The question is asked at 16:37.22 in the Parliament Live video here and Milward answers at 16:38.10 on the video.)