Taliban Foreign Ministry: ICC Has No Legitimacy or Jurisdiction

DID Press: Taliban-run Foreign Ministry has rejected the latest action by the International Criminal Court (ICC), describing the court and its decisions concerning Afghanistan as lacking legitimacy and jurisdiction.

The ministry’s spokesperson said Afghanistan is an independent country and that any decision or action taken without consideration of what the Taliban calls Afghanistan’s national sovereignty would not be accepted by its government.

The spokesperson also said the Taliban’s position toward the ICC had not changed and that its actions were contrary to the principle of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty.

The comments followed the ICC’s decision on October 5 to unseal four arrest warrants issued in 2025 against senior Taliban officials, including Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadim. The court alleges that the four are responsible for crimes against humanity involving gender-based and political persecution.

The ICC says its Afghanistan investigation has jurisdiction over crimes within the court’s mandate allegedly committed in Afghanistan since May 1, 2003. Afghanistan acceded to the Rome Statute in 2003.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has rejected the court’s authority, saying the Taliban government does not recognize the ICC or attach significance to its decisions.