The Taliban rejected arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its emir, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, and its chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on July 8. The ICC issued the warrants for the two Taliban leaders for their crimes against women and the wider civilian population of Afghanistan.
In the statement accompanying the arrest warrants, the ICC said that “the Taliban have implemented a governmental policy that resulted in severe violations of fundamental rights and freedoms of the civilian population of Afghanistan, in connection with conducts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.”
“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” The ICC noted. “Specifically, the Taliban severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.”
The Taliban immediately responded to the warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani that were issued by what it called the “so-called International Court.”
“Such announcements and baseless rhetoric cannot affect the firm determination and legitimate stance of the Islamic Emirate in any way. We do not recognize any entity under the title of the ‘International Court,’ nor do we acknowledge any obligation toward it,” Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a written statement released on Al Emerah, the Taliban’s official website.
Mujahid criticized the court for issuing the warrants and said that “raising slogans about human rights, justice, and the court is a matter of shame and disgrace” while “genocide is ongoing in Gaza, Palestine, by the Israeli Zionist regime and its foreign supporters.”
Additionally, the Taliban characterized the ICC warrants as a direct attack on “the sacred laws of Islamic Sharia,” since Akhundzada and Haqqani are responsible for implementing the Taliban’s harsh laws.
“Labeling the laws of Islamic Sharia as oppressive or against humanity, and threatening those who implement them with arrest and prosecution, is a clear expression of enmity and hatred toward the pure religion of Islam and its legal system, and it is an insult to the beliefs of all Muslims,” Mujahid said.
Four decades of harsh Taliban justice
Akhundzada and Haqqani have long been at the forefront of imposing the Taliban’s extreme version of Sharia on the Afghan people. Prior to becoming the emir of the Taliban in 2016, Akhundzada served as a judge in the Taliban’s first government from 1996 to 2001, until the US deposed the regime. During that time, the Taliban forced women to cover themselves completely and publicly executed women in particularly brutal ways, including stonings and beheadings, for perceived crimes such as adultery.
After the fall of the Taliban’s first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Akhundzada assumed control of the Taliban’s shadow court system, which dispensed brutal punishments in areas of the country the Taliban controlled. In addition to running the shadow courts, Akhundzada issued fatwas (religious rulings) that justified suicide attacks against the Afghan government, civilians, and Western military personnel. Akhundzada’s son, Hafiz Abdul Rahman, killed himself and others in a suicide attack in Helmand province in 2017. Akhundzada became the emir of the Taliban after the US killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour in May 2016. Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri endorsed Akhundzada and swore allegiance to him.
Haqqani served as chief justice of the Taliban’s Sharia courts from 1996 to 2001. He ran a madrassa (religious school) in Quetta, Pakistan, a hotbed of Taliban activity during the group’s insurgency. Haqqani succeeded Akhundzada as the head of the Taliban’s shadow court system after the former became emir in 2016 and led the Taliban’s negotiating team in Doha, Qatar. After the collapse of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Haqqani was appointed the chief justice of Afghanistan.
