(23 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Hague, Netherlands – 23 January 2025
++STARTS AND ENDS ON SOUNDBITES++
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor:
"My officers concluded that these two Afghan nationals are criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived are not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression. And persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women."
++WHITE FLASH++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor:
"These applications recognise that Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQI+ community, are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban. Our action signals the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable."
++WHITE FLASH++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Karim Khan, International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor
"My office further submits that the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia should not and may not be used to justify the deprivation of fundamental human rights or the related Commission of Rome Statute crimes."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor announced on Thursday that he had requested arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials for the repression of women.
Karim Khan said in a statement he asked judges to approve warrants for the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the country’s Supreme Court chief Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing the men of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.
“These applications recognise that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” Khan said in a statement.
Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban has barred women from jobs, most public spaces and excluded them from education beyond sixth grade.
Last year, Akhundzada banned buildings from having windows looking into places where a woman might sit or stand.
Human rights groups applauded the move.
It is the first time in the court’s history that attacks on the LGBTQ+ community have been considered a crime against humanity.
Judges at The Hague-based court approved a request in 2022 from the prosecutor to reopen the investigation into Afghanistan.
The probe was shelved after Kaboul said it could handle the investigation.
Khan announced in 2021 that he wanted to reopen the inquiry because under the country’s new Taliban rulers there was “no longer the prospect of genuine and effective domestic investigations” in the country.
The move drew criticism from human rights groups, however, as Khan pledged to focus on crimes committed by the Taliban and the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group.
He said he would “deprioritize” other aspects of the investigation, such as crimes committed by Americans.
Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, got approval in 2020 to start looking at offenses allegedly committed by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives dating back to 2002.
The decision to look into Americans led to the previous Trump administration slapping sanctions on Bensouda, whose term ended in 2021.
There is no deadline for judges to rule on a request for a warrant, but a decision typically takes around four months.
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