Maanavi Welcomes ICC Arrest Warrants Against Taliban Officials
Fazl Ahmad Maanavi, the justice minister in the former republic administration, has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s public announcement of arrest warrants for four senior Taliban officials, saying legal responsibility for violations of people’s rights does not disappear with time.
In a message on the social media platform X, he wrote that the warrants issued against “Hibatullah Akhundzada, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Habibullah Agha and Nada Mohammad Nadeem” show that “the Afghanistan file” remains open in the process of international justice.
Maanavi added that on November 21, 2022, he shared issues related to the situation in Afghanistan and violations of people’s rights with the International Criminal Court, and since then, he said, the process has continued in a “slow but persistent” manner.
He stressed that documenting human rights violations may be delayed, but it eventually reaches the path of justice. Maanavi also called on the International Criminal Court to take the next steps “faster and more decisively” given the scale and continuing nature of the situation in Afghanistan.
The former justice minister also said justice has meaning for victims only when individuals’ responsibility for their actions does not remain confined to documents and case files, but is also pursued in practice.
