Tehran, IRNA — The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Taliban leaders for alleged gender-based crimes in Afghanistan.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement on Thursday that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Afghanistan’s Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
“My Office has concluded that these two Afghan nationals are criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women,” the statement further read.
The applications for the arrest warrants will need to be approved by a judge.
The ICC does not hold enforcement power on its own and relies on cooperation by countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court for any potential arrests.
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