The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday announced that it is seeking arrests of two Taliban leaders for their role in gender-based crimes.
A statement issued by the office of the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, requests approval for warrants for Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Taliban’s supreme court. The charge: They are “criminally responsible” for persecuting Afghan girls and women, their allies and those the Taliban perceives as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression.
The statement says persecutions have been committed since at least Aug. 15, 2021, the day the Taliban took over Afghanistan following the collapse of the Western-backed government. Since then, the Taliban has imposed over 100 decrees restricting the rights of women and girls, including bans or restrictions on education, employment, public and political participation, dress and travel.
The request for arrest warrants would need to be approved by the court, with cooperation from ICC member states.
The Taliban has denounced the call for arrests on their website, terming them as “devoid of just legal basis, duplicitous in nature and politically motivated.”
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