International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan said on Thursday (23) that he had requested arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of crimes against the humanity by widespread discrimination against women and girls.
A statement issued by Khan’s office said evidence collected as part of the investigations provided reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has served as chief justice since 2021, “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution for gender reasons.”
They are “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as people the Taliban perceived as not conforming to their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and people the group perceived as allies of girls and women,” explained the statement.
The persecution took place from at least August 15, 2021 to the present day, across the entire territory of Afghanistan and is ongoing, said the prosecutor.
There was no immediate comment from Taliban leaders on the prosecutor’s statement.
It will now be up to a panel of three judges at the ICC to decide on the indictment request, which has no set deadline.
Such procedures take an average of three months.
In August last year, the Taliban codified a long set of rules governing morality in line with Islamic sharia law.
The rules are enforced by the morality ministry, which says it has detained thousands of people for violations.
Khan stressed that his office was demonstrating its commitment to seeking accountability for gender-based crimes and that the Taliban’s interpretation of sharia could not be a justification for human rights abuses or crimes.
“Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQI+ community, are facing unprecedented, inconceivable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban. Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” the prosecutor exclaimed.
The Afghanistan investigation is one of the longest by ICC prosecutors and has been beset by legal and practical delays. The initial preliminary examination began in 2007 and it was only in 2022 that a full-scale investigation moved forward.
Since Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban returned to power in 2021, they have cracked down on women’s rights, including limits on schooling, work, and general independence in daily life.
This content was originally published in ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders for discrimination on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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