The International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants for Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, reported "Reuters", quoted by News.bg. They are accused of crimes against humanity for widespread discrimination against women and girls.
A statement from the office of Attorney General Karim Khan said that evidence gathered as part of the investigations provided reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has been chief justice since 2021, "are criminally responsible for the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution."
It also stressed that they were "criminally responsible for the persecution of Afghan girls and women, as well as individuals perceived by the Taliban as not conforming to their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and individuals perceived by the Taliban as allies of girls and women." The prosecutions have been ongoing since at least August 15, 2021, and continue today.
This investigation is one of the longest conducted by ICC prosecutors and has been plagued by legal and practical delays. The initial preliminary investigation began in 2007, and it was not until 2022 that a full-scale investigation began.
Since Afghanistan's Islamist Taliban returned to power in 2021, they have restricted women's rights, including restrictions on education, work, and general independence in daily life.
On January 20, the Taliban's deputy foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, made a strong public call for the ruling group's leadership to open schools to girls, one of the sharpest criticisms from a Taliban official of the policy, which has deepened the regime's international isolation.
Stanekzai described the situation as an injustice against half of Afghanistan's population - about 20 million women.