Afghan Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’ – World

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday that an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”

It comes a day after the ICC’s chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.

“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it lacks a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Afghan Foreign Ministry posted on the X social media platform.

“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”

He said the court “should not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values ​​of people in the rest of the world.”

The Taliban returned to power in 2021 after ousting the US-backed government in a swift but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of people’s lives. women.

Afghanistan’s Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “cannot scare us.”

“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought the United States to court, because it is the United States that has caused wars, the world’s problems are caused by the United States,” he said at an event in eastern Khost City attended by AFP journalist.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be prosecuted for the country’s military offensive in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas attacks in October 2023.

“They should have brought the prime minister of Israel to court, because (the government) has martyred tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, they martyred children and women, but he is walking free because the power of the world is at his side,” Omari said.



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