A federal US judge has blocked sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on a UN expert who called for US and Israeli officials to be prosecuted for war crimes in Gaza.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio introduced punitive measures last year against Italian lawyer Francesca ​Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories, following an executive order from president Donald Trump.

The sanctions, which barred her from entering the US or having a bank account there, came after she recommended that the international criminal court (ICC) pursue prosecutions against Israeli officials in the wake of the genocide in Gaza.

Albanese’s Italian husband and American-born daughter filed a lawsuit in February that said the sanctions were “effectively debanking her and making it nearly impossible to meet the needs of her daily life”.

On Wednesday, US district judge Richard Leon found that the fact Albanese resides outside the US has no bearing on her first amendment protections and that her right to free speech had been violated.

“Albanese has done nothing more than speak,” Leon wrote in his opinion. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions – they are nothing more than her opinion.”

Responding to the decision, ​Albanese wrote on social media: “Thanks to my daughter and my husband for stepping up to defend me, and everyone who has helped so far. Together we are one.”

In a later post she added that despite the decision “the battle is not over”, since others remain under sanctions because of their work on Palestine.

“The interim decision by the US judge gives me respite but the battle is not over,” she wrote. “ICC judges and Palestinian NGOs remain sanctioned with no recourse to justice. The stakes are incredibly high.”

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