THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday ruled that prosecutor Karim Khan can resume his investigations into atrocities in Afghanistan, a probe that had been on hold for more than two years.
According to the ruling, published by the ICC, the judges said the investigation could move forward as Kabul “is not presently carrying out genuine investigations” into the alleged crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction, as it had earlier insisted.
Last August, a year into Taliban rule, prosecutor Khan had urged judges to allow the probe to move forward and warned that crimes were continuing in Afghanistan.
In September last year, Khan announced he wanted to resume the probe into crimes by the Taliban and the ISIS-K militant group. He said prosecutors would “deprioritize” looking into suspected crimes by U.S. forces and Afghan government troops.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Editing by William Maclean and Angus MacSwan)
