ICC allows war crimes investigation

International panel’s decision is the first time prosecutor authorized to probe U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — International Criminal Court judges authorized a far-reaching investigation Thursday of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, American troops and U.S. foreign intelligence operatives.

The appellate ruling marked the first time the court’s prosecutor has been cleared to investigate U.S. forces, and set the global tribunal on a collision course with the Trump administration.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda pledged to carry out an independent and impartial investigation and called for full support and cooperation from all parties.

“The many victims of atrocious crimes committed in the context of the conflict in Afghanistan deserve to finally have justice,” Bensouda said. “Today they are one step closer to that coveted outcome.”

Washington, which has long rejected the court’s jurisdiction and refuses to cooperate with it, condemned the decision while human rights groups and lawyers for victims applauded it.

“This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a State Department briefing. “It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan, which is the best chance for peace in a generation.”

His comments reflect long-held distrust of the ICC by the U.S. government. In 2018, then-national security adviser John Bolton said the court — established in 2002 to prosecute atrocities throughout the world — “unacceptably threatens American sovereignty and U.S. national security interests.”

A five-judge appellate panel upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a pretrial chamber’s rejection in April last year of Bensouda’s request to open a probe in Afghanistan.

While acknowledging that widespread crimes have been committed in Afghanistan, pretrial judges had said an investigation wouldn’t be in the interests of justice because the expected lack of cooperation meant convictions would ultimately be unlikely.

That decision drew fierce criticism from rights organizations that said it neglected the desire of victims to see justice in Afghanistan and effectively rewarded states that refused to cooperate with The Haguebased court.

Even though an investigation has now been authorized, the prospect of suspects appearing in court in The Hague any time soon remains dim. Like the United States, Afghanistan also opposed the investigation.

Rights groups, however, welcomed the decision.

“The ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision to green light an investigation of brutal crimes in Afghanistan ... reaffirms the court’s essential role for victims when all other doors to justice are closed,” said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

She added that the decision “also sends a muchneeded signal to current and would-be perpetrators of atrocities that justice may one day catch up to them.”

JIM HUYLEBROEK/THE NEW YORK TIMES Graves are prepared for a family axed to death in its Kabul home. The International Criminal Court has authorized an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.