ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Afghan Taliban officials

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The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on January 23rd that he had sought arrest warrants against two senior Afghan Taliban officials for the oppression of women, The New Arab via Reuters reported.

In a statement, Karim Khan revealed that he had asked judges to authorise warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhunzada, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. He accused them of committing crimes against humanity by means of gender-based persecution.

“These applications recognize that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” Khan said.

Since regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women, barring them from jobs, the majority of public spaces and education after sixth grade.

In 2024, Akhundzada prohibited buildings from having windows that would overlook areas where women might stand or sit.

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Human rights organisations welcomed the ICC’s action against the Taliban leadership.

“Their systematic violations of women and girls’ rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women’s rights, have accelerated with complete impunity. With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the warrant requests offer an essential pathway to a measure of accountability,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness, which is an Afghan women’s group, praised the ICC’s move, claiming it is a “great historical achievement.”

“We consider this achievement a symbol of the strength and will of Afghan women and believe this step will start a new chapter of accountability and justice in the country,” they said on January 24th.

This marks the first time in ICC history that attacks targeting the LGBTQ+ community have been classified as crimes against humanity.

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But on January 24th, the Taliban government of Afghanistan dismissed the arrest warrant request as “politically motivated.”

“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, which was posted on X.

Judges at the court, which is based in The Hague, agreed to a request in 2022 from the prosecutor, to resume the investigation into Afghanistan.

The probe had been delayed due to Kabul claiming it was capable of dealing with the investigation.

Khan argued that when the Taliban was in power, there was “no longer the prospect of genuine and effective domestic investigations” in the country, which made him want to resume the inquiry.

Nonetheless, human rights advocates condemned Khan’s approach of prioritising crimes carried out by the Taliban and the Afghan division of the Islamic State.

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Khan said he would be “deprioritise” other elements of the investigation, including the crimes carried out by Americans.

Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, had obtained approval in 2020 to examine crimes allegedly carried out by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, US troops, and US foreign intelligence operatives, which go as far back as 2002.

The previous Trump administration responded to the decision to investigate Americans by imposing sanctions on Bensouda, whose term came to an end in 2021.

There is no set timeframe for ICC judges to decide on warrant requests, but a decision usually takes around four months. The pre-trial chamber issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023, which took three weeks. But in the case of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it took six months during 2024.

The New Arab via Reuters

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