International Criminal Court seeks to resume Afghan war crimes with a focus on Taliban, IS not the US
Monitoring Desk :
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has sought to resume Afghanistan war crimes allegedly committed by the Taliban and the Islam State (IS), but not the United States.
ICC prosecutor seeks to resume Afghanistan war crimes probe with focus on Taliban and IS, but not US forces
The International Criminal Court’s new chief prosecutor said Monday he wants to focus his investigation in Afghanistan on the Taliban and Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and to “deprioritize” alleged war crimes by US forces.
A statement said the request was being made to the court’s judges in light of developments since the Taliban movement seized the control of Afghanistan in a lightning advance last month.
The ICC had already spent 15 years looking into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan before opening a full investigation last year. That probe was put on hold by the Afghan government, which said it was investigating the crimes itself.
The Hague-based ICC is a court of last resort, intervening only when a member country is unable or unwilling to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.
The fall of the internationally recognized Afghan government and its replacement by the Taliban represent a “significant change of circumstances”, new prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
The Afghanistan probe’s inclusion of alleged US crimes had infuriated Washington.
