By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The International Criminal Court prosecutor on Thursday said he had applied for arrest warrants for Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of crimes against humanity for widespread discrimination against women and girls.
A statement issued by the office of chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said evidence collected as part of 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 on gender grounds.”
They 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 said.
The persecution has taken place from at least 15 August 2021 until the present day, across the territory of Afghanistan and is ongoing, the prosecutor said.
The Afghanistan probe is one of the longest by ICC prosecutors and has been beset by legal and practical delays. The initial preliminary examination started in 2007 and it was only in 2022 that a full-scale investigation has moved forward.
Since Afghanistan’s Islamist Taliban returned to power in 2021 it has clamped down on women’s rights, including limits to schooling, work and general independence in daily life.
