The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has said he was seeking approval to resume investigation into Afghanistan, focusing on the actions of the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), while alleged US crimes will take a back seat.
A statement on the ICC website on Monday said the request was being made to the court’s judges in light of developments since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month.
Karim Khan, who took over in June, said the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover meant war crimes were no longer likely to be investigated properly.
A lawyer for alleged victims of US torture in Afghanistan was “stunned” after Khan announced he would “deprioritise” the investigation into American forces, a probe that has long enraged Washington.
The ICC had already spent 15 years looking into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan before opening a full investigation last year. The Hague-based ICC’s inquiry had been put on hold in 2020 after the now-deposed government in Kabul said it would try to investigate war crimes allegations itself. […]
The court had found there was a reasonable basis to believe war crimes had been committed between 2003 and 2014, among them suspected mass killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as suspected torture of prisoners by Afghan authorities and, to a lesser extent, by US forces and the CIA. But the United States is not a party to the ICC, and imposed sanctions against the office of the prosecutor for investigating the role of US forces.
Shifting the focus of the probe could help mend the court’s relationship with Washington. Läs artikel