ICC unseals arrest warrants for 4 Taliban leaders wanted on gender persecution charges

The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

The court said in a statement that warrants were issued in July and September last year for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. Also wanted are Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim.

The existence of the warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani was revealed last year but the warrants remained sealed. With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan and the court having no police force to execute warrants, the prospect of any of the suspects being arrested is remote.

Since they took back control of the country, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond primary school. Last year, Akhundzada banned buildings from having windows looking into places where a woman might sit or stand.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the court’s decision.

“Afghanistan does not recognise any court under the title of the ‘International Court’, nor does it attach any significance to its positions,” he said in a written statement. “We are bound by the rulings of Islamic sharia and its courts, not by intelligence entities or so-called courts.”

Former ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced in January last year that he had requested warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani, saying that his applications “recognise that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban”.

The four suspects are charged with persecution on gender grounds against “girls, women and other persons nonconforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women’”, the court said on Monday.

Judges who issued the warrants said the four suspects, “acting on behalf of the Taliban”, implemented a government policy that “resulted in severe violations of fundamental rights and freedoms of the civilian population of Afghanistan, in connection with conducts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance”.

The judges said that the Taliban “specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms” including education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.

“In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender,” the judges said.

Rights groups applauded last year when the court issued sealed warrants for the two senior Taliban leaders.