The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, requested on Thursday the judges to approve two arrest warrants, one against the supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and another against the president of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for persecution on gender reasons in Afghanistan.

The prosecutor claims to have “reasonable reasons” to consider both “criminally responsible” for a crime against humanity throughout the territory of Afghanistan since August 15, 2021 for persecuting Afghan girls and women, and people whom the Taliban perceived as “not in accordance with their ideological expectations of identity or gender expression,” or “as allies of girls and women.”

“This ongoing persecution entails numerous and serious deprivations of the fundamental rights of victims, contrary to international law, including the right to physical integrity and autonomy, freedom of movement and expression, education, private and family life and freedom of assembly,” Khan denounced.

In addition, the prosecutor stressed that perceived resistance or opposition to the Taliban “was, and is, brutally repressed by committing crimes that include murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts.”

These are the first arrest warrants requested by the prosecutor as part of his investigation into serious crimes in Afghanistan, although he assures that he will “soon file more requests for other senior Taliban officials.”

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Among the evidence his office is audiovisual material, official decrees, forensic reports, as well as testimonies from experts and witnesses, and statements from the suspects themselves and other representatives of the Taliban.

“These requests recognize that Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQI+ community, face unprecedented, inadmissible and ongoing persecution by the Taliban. Our action indicates that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable. Afghan survivors, particularly women and girls, deserve to be held accountable to a court of justice,” the prosecutor warned.

At the end of November, Chile, Costa Rica, Spain, France, Luxembourg and Mexico expressed their “concern about the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in Afghanistan, especially for women and girls” and asked the prosecutor to consider “the crimes against women and girls” committed by the Taliban.

Khan assured them that gender persecution is already included in his investigation and promised to announce results “soon.”

“The interpretation of Sharia by the Taliban should not and cannot be used to justify the deprivation of fundamental human rights or the commission of related crimes contemplated in the Rome Statute (ICC treaty),” he warned on Thursday, waiting for the judges to authorize the arrest warrants against the Taliban leaders.

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In 2020, the ICC prosecutor’s office obtained unanimous authorization from judges to begin investigating alleged crimes committed in the territory of Afghanistan since 1 May 2003, as well as crimes related to the armed conflict and the situation in Afghanistan, which were committed in the territory of other States party to the ICC since July 2002.

The previous Afghan government challenged the admissibility of the investigation, but on October 31, 2022, after the Taliban seized power, the prosecutor’s office has resumed the case and “has been carrying out an independent, impartial and solid investigation” of the crimes in Afghanistan.

However, Khan will only focus his efforts on investigating the crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State subsidiary (IS-Khorasan) group, leaving other aspects in the background, such as the alleged crimes committed by American soldiers.