THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Worldwide Felony Courtroom issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme chief and the top of Afghanistan’s Supreme Courtroom on prices of persecuting girls and women since seizing energy almost 4 years in the past.
The warrants additionally accuse the leaders of persecuting “different individuals nonconforming with the Taliban’s coverage on gender, gender identification or expression; and on political grounds towards individuals perceived as ‘allies of women and girls.'”
The warrants had been issued towards Taliban supreme chief Hibatullah Akhunzada and the top of the Supreme Courtroom, Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
The courtroom’s prosecution workplace known as the choice to subject warrants “an essential vindication and acknowledgment of the rights of Afghan girls and women.”
It added that the judges’ ruling “additionally acknowledges the rights and lived experiences of individuals whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identification or expression, similar to members of the LGBTQI+ neighborhood, and individuals whom the Taliban perceived as allies of women and girls.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban authorities, rejected the courtroom’s authority.
He mentioned in an announcement that the courtroom’s choice mirrored “open hostility and hatred towards the holy faith of Islam and Shariah legislation,” and is “an insult to the beliefs of all Muslims.”
The warrants got here simply hours after the United Nations adopted a decision Monday over U.S. objections that known as on the Taliban to reverse their worsening oppression of girls and women and get rid of all terrorist organizations.
They’re the newest high-profile suspects named in arrest warrants issued by The Hague-based courtroom that additionally has sought the arrest of different leaders together with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since returning to energy in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures, banning girls from public locations and women from attending faculty past the sixth grade. Final week, Russia turned the primary nation to formally acknowledge the Taliban’s authorities.
The courtroom mentioned in an announcement that the Taliban have “severely disadvantaged, via decrees and edicts, women and girls of the rights to training, privateness and household life and the freedoms of motion, expression, thought, conscience and faith.”
The courtroom’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January, saying that they acknowledged that “Afghan girls and women in addition to the LGBTQI+ neighborhood are going through an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
World advocacy group Human Rights Watch welcomed the choice, and urged the worldwide neighborhood to assist implement the courtroom’s warrants.
“Senior Taliban leaders are actually needed males for his or her alleged persecution of girls, women, and gender-nonconforming folks,” Liz Evenson, the group’s worldwide justice director, mentioned in an announcement.
ICC judges permitted a request in 2022 from the prosecutor to reopen an investigation into Afghanistan. The probe was shelved after Kabul mentioned it might deal with the investigation.
Khan mentioned he needed to reopen the inquiry as a result of below the Taliban, there was “now not the prospect of real and efficient home investigations” in Afghanistan.
Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, acquired approval in 2020 to begin taking a look at offenses allegedly dedicated by Afghan authorities forces, the Taliban, American troops and U.S. international intelligence operatives courting again to 2002.
When Khan reopened the probe, he mentioned he would concentrate on crimes dedicated by the Taliban and the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group. He mentioned he would “deprioritize” different elements of the investigation, similar to crimes dedicated by People.
The warrants for Taliban leaders had been issued whereas Khan has stepped down briefly pending the result of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. Khan has categorically denied accusations that he tried for greater than a yr to coerce a feminine aide right into a sexual relationship and groped her towards her will.
