The Hague/Amsterdam: Judges at the International Criminal Court on Thursday ruled that the prosecutor can open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The decision overturns a lower court ruling that blocked the investigation because the odds of success were low and it would not “serve the interests of justice.”
🎥 #ICC Appeals Chamber authorises the opening of an investigation into alleged crimes in relation to the situation in #Afghanistan. ➡Find out more in our press release shortly pic.twitter.com/H7r37XlbEL
— Int’l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) March 5, 2020
It opens the way for prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity that may have been committed by the Taliban, by Afghani forces, and by the US military and intelligence forces during the conflict.
The United States is not a member of the court and rejects its jurisdiction, although Afghanistan is a member.
The prosecutor had asked the appeals panel to overturn that decision. In their ruling, the judges of the lower court had 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.
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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.
US forces and other foreign troops entered Afghanistan in 2001 after the September 11 al Qaeda attacks on the United States and overthrew the Taliban government, which had been protecting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
In what has become the United States’ longest war, about 13,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan.
The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement on Saturday to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops still in the country, but Washington carried out an air strike on Taliban fighters on Wednesday.
The ICC, which began operations in The Hague in 2002, is a court of last resort for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity when committed by nationals of a signatory state, or if they took place on the territory of one of its member states. Afghanistan is an ICC member; the United States is not.