ICC Afghanistan investigation partly closed as prosecutors appeal

The ICC Afghanistan investigation has lost its US troops strand, after judges closed that line of inquiry and prosecutors filed an appeal.

Judges at the International Criminal Court dated the decision November 12, court documents show. It leaves only the case on the Taliban’s conduct since 2021.

What the ICC Afghanistan investigation ruling ends

Judges shut down the strand on alleged US troop crimes, which had sat idle since 2021. They also ended a separate probe into Islamic State Khorasan, known as ISIS-K.

In March 2020, the court opened the original investigation. Its reach extended back to May 2003 for crimes in Afghanistan, plus linked crimes on the soil of other member states from July 2002. Afghanistan joined the court in 2003, which gave it power over offences on Afghan territory from then on.

Washington is not a member of the court. Even so, that first inquiry could reach US troops and intelligence personnel as well as Taliban fighters and ex-government forces.

Why judges narrowed the ICC Afghanistan investigation

Judges said prosecutors had not shown they could investigate effectively beyond the Taliban case. They had already told prosecutors this year to split the work into two probes. One tracks alleged Taliban offences committed after the group took back power in August 2021. The other was the original inquiry, which had drifted towards ISIS-K.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed on Friday that it had appealed, but gave no further detail. Nothing in the ruling says whether any crimes took place, and it does not clear any individual. It simply closes the investigative record.

The Taliban case goes on

The ICC Afghanistan investigation has a second track, known as Afghanistan II, and it stays open. Records say that inquiry remains live and stands legally apart from the original case. It looks at alleged persecution since 2021, including crimes against women and girls. Six member states referred allegations about the Taliban’s treatment of Afghans after the takeover.

That narrows the chances of holding anyone to account for alleged abuses in the war’s earlier years. Its public case summary adds that shutting the original record does not halt the second probe. Arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders stay in force. Judges unsealed those arrest warrants earlier over alleged gender persecution.

The US dimension

US officials have long opposed scrutiny of their personnel. The Trump administration has put sanctions on the court and on current or former staff, and it also objects to court action involving Israeli officials. However, the judges’ stated grounds concern whether the inquiry is workable, not US pressure.

It is unclear whether the closure will ease American concerns. The founding statute still lets the court prosecute anyone accused of atrocity crimes on the territory of member states, and this ruling leaves that rule untouched.

For now, the ICC Afghanistan investigation has narrowed to the Taliban case. Meanwhile, the appeal leaves the decision open to change, and its outcome will settle how much of the wider inquiry remains closed.