OMM Redaksiyası
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday unsealed four arrest warrants for Taliban figures over alleged crimes against humanity involving gender-based and political persecution in Afghanistan.
The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II made public warrants against Haibatullah Akhundzada, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadim. The warrants were issued on July 8 and September 9, 2025. The existence of the warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani had already been announced in July 2025.
Judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe the suspects were responsible for ordering, inducing or soliciting persecution of girls and women, and of others who did not conform to Taliban policies on gender, gender identity or expression. The warrants also concern alleged political persecution of people perceived as “allies of girls and women.”
The alleged crimes took place from the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, 2021, until at least January 20, 2025. The chamber found that the suspects implemented a government policy that led to severe violations of fundamental rights in connection with murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.
According to the court, girls and women were targeted because of their gender and severely deprived of their rights to education, privacy and family life, as well as their freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.
Judges said gender persecution encompasses direct violence and systemic, institutionalised harm, including discriminatory social norms. They also found that people perceived as opposing the policies, even passively or through omission, were targeted as political opponents.
