ICC Unseals Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leader Akhundzada and Three Top Officials Over Persecution of Women

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday unsealed arrest warrants for four senior Taliban figures, including supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, over the alleged persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.

In a press release, the court said its Pre-Trial Chamber II had unsealed warrants issued on 8 July 2025 and 9 September 2025 against Akhundzada, Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadim. The Associated Press identified Agha as the Taliban's education minister and Nadim as minister of higher education.

The existence of the first two warrants was made public in July 2025, but the documents had remained sealed until now, the ICC said.

What the judges found

According to the ICC, the chamber found "reasonable grounds to believe that the four suspects are criminally responsible for having ordered, induced or solicited the crime against humanity of persecution", on gender grounds and on political grounds against people perceived as "allies of girls and women".

The court said the alleged crimes were committed in Afghanistan from the Taliban's takeover on 15 August 2021 until at least 20 January 2025.

Judges said the Taliban "specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms", including the rights to education, privacy and family life, and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.

Why the warrants were made public

The chamber decided to unseal the warrants, with redactions, after concluding this would not unduly affect ongoing investigations and could "prevent the commission of further crimes by the suspects", AFP reported. It said publication could also "promote cooperation by the international community... in relation to the situation in Afghanistan".

UN News said the warrants were first issued under seal to protect victims and witnesses and safeguard the proceedings.

Little prospect of arrests

The AP noted that with the Taliban in control of Afghanistan and the court having no police force of its own, the prospect of any of the suspects being arrested is remote.

Both AP and AFP said they had approached the Taliban for comment. No response had been reported at the time of writing.

Since returning to power, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade, the AP said.

Pressure from the UN

The announcement came on the same day the UN Human Rights Council urged the Taliban to repeal what it called the "worsening" and "systematic oppression of all women and girls in Afghanistan", according to AFP.

Former ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested the first two warrants in January 2025, saying Afghan women and girls were facing "an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban", the AP reported.