Taliban responds to arrest warrants by slamming ICC for turning "blind eye" during past 20 years

The Taliban-led Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to refrain from imposing its own "interpretation" of human rights onto the entire world in response to new arrest warrants issued for two Taliban leaders.

This was stated in a message shared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via their official X account. 

As Caliber.Az reports, the Afghan diplomatic body calls the warrants issued against the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Sheikh Abdul Hakim Haqqani "akin many other decisions of this institution devoid of just legal basis, duplicitous in nature and politically motivated."

"It is unfortunate that such baseless allegations are being levelled against the honorable leaders of the Islamic Emirate at a time when Afghanistan enjoys nationwide peace, its people have breathed a sigh of relief, private prisons, kidnappings, islands of power and numerous other miseries and inhumane activities have been eradicated," the ministry's statement reads.

The statement is in response to the warrants that had been issued over the persecution of women and girls the ICC accuses the Islamic group of undergoing since they came to power after ousting the previous US-backed government in 2021, which led to the rushed exit of virtually all Western military units that  had been present for decades from Afghanistan.

Further responding to the accusations, the Taliban-led foreign ministry claims that the ICC "turned a blind eye to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies [...] during the two decades of occupation in Afghanistan." 

By Nazrin Sadigova