KABUL - The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has requested a full investigation in Afghanistan. US and Afghan military personnel could be indicted, along with Taliban members, for committing crimes against humanity.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Monday formally asked for judicial authorization to open a full investigation into the possibility that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Afghanistan: by the Taliban, by Afghan forces and by the American military.
Judges are expected to give Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda the go-ahead after more than a decade of preliminary consideration by her office.
"After a comprehensive and careful scrutiny of the information available to the office," Bensouda said in a statement announcing her decision, "I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation of the situation in Afghanistan." She named the Taliban and Haqqani Network, the Afghan National Security Forces, in particular, members of the National Directorate for Security and the Afghan National Police, and members of the US armed forces and CIA.
The latter will also be held responsible for acts committed at secret detention centers located in Lithuania, Poland and Romania as well as on Afghan territory. She has previously reported that US personnel have inflicted "torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity and/or rape" upon dozens of detainees.
Bensouda said she would only be looking at alleged war crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan since May 1, 2003, the date Afghanistan became a member of the court, but would also include acts linked to Afghanistan that could have been committed in other countries since July 1, 2002. (DW)