International Criminal Court appeals judges on Thursday ruled that the alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan’s conflict can be investigated.
A lower chamber at the ICC last April rejected lead prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s request to open an official inquiry into alleged crimes by all parties in the conflict including US troops, Afghan government forces and Taliban militants.
The prosecutor asked the appeals panel to overturn that decision. In their ruling, the judges said they were blocking her request because the chance of a successful prosecution was small due to a lack of cooperation from Kabul and other “key states” including the United States.
A preliminary examination of the conflict in Afghanistan has been ongoing at the ICC since 2006.
In response to the case, US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed travel restrictions and other sanctions against ICC employees a year ago.
Bensouda believes there are grounds to open an investigation into abuses committed between 2003 and 2014, including alleged mass killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as the alleged torture of prisoners by Afghan authorities and to a lesser extent by US forces and the CIA.
Amnesty International welcomed the ICC’s decision.
“This is an historic moment where the International Criminal Court has reversed a terrible mistake and decided to stand by the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides to the conflict in Afghanistan,”Amnesty International’s Head of International Justice, Solomon Sacco, said.“The ICC represents the first true hope of justice for the victims of conflict, who have been shamefully ignored for years, including in the recent peace agreement that has nothing to say about the crimes committed against them.”
“This is a decision that will be extremely popular with those fighting for justice and deeply unpopular with the parties to the conflict, including powerful states that attempted to bully the court and who have eluded it for so long. It deserves everyone’s support,” Sacco said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
