ICC Issues Arrest Warrants Against Taliban's Supreme Leader & Chief Justice
A landmark development. ICC issues the arrest warrants in Afghanistan case.
On 8 July 2025, the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II took a resolute and historic step: it issued arrest warrants for Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the group’s Chief Justice. This follows the Office of the Prosecutor's submission in January 2025, and comes after years of evidence gathering and legal groundwork. This decision is grounded in extensive evidence and years of investigation into the systematic persecution of women, girls, and gender non-conforming individuals in Afghanistan. Under the supervision of Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, the Afghanistan Unified Team has worked since 2022 to investigate these violations. The ICC has established reasonable grounds to believe that these two figures ordered, induced, or solicited crimes against humanity; under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute; on both gender and political grounds. From the day the Taliban seized Kabul, 15 August 2021, the regime has functioned not just as an oppressive political force but as an instrument of targeted gender-based repression. Decrees, edicts and policies are their mechanisms of deliberate social erasure. Girls and women are stripped of their right to education, movement, expression, and even privacy within family life. These are forms of institutional discrimination and persecution. These are not random, benign violations. The Chamber also determined that individuals who supported women’s rights, whether outspoken or quietly resistant, are labeled as political enemies and targeted accordingly. The regime’s ideological framework criminalized dissent and gender diversity alike, under the banner of so-called “governance.” This move by the ICC is NOT symbolic. Because, it is the first step of action towards justice. It sends a message to authoritarian regimes everywhere: gender-based persecution CANNOT use the "cultural" shield. It is a criminal act. It is an act of violation of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is a direct affront to international law, and it will be prosecuted. The warrants remain sealed for now to protect witnesses and safeguard future proceedings but the Court has chosen to publicly confirm their existence to foster awareness, prevention, and accountability. Investigations are ongoing into Taliban and Islamic State – Khorasan Province.
Please let this moment mark a turning point where silence begins to give way to global scrutiny, and impunity faces a wall of international resolve.
Read here: