Afghanistan Freedom Front: Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders—A Necessary Step, But Not Enough
9 July 2025
The Afghanistan Freedom Front welcomes the issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the Taliban, and Mullah Hakim Haqqani, head of the group’s judiciary. This step is viewed as an important move toward holding the Taliban accountable for their crimes and delivering justice to their victims.
However, the Freedom Front believes that this measure alone is not enough. All Taliban leaders who have been involved in repression, killings, discrimination, crimes against humanity, and human rights violations must be prosecuted. Tougher international sanctions and penalties should be enforced, and the practice of rewarding terrorism and extremism at the global level must be stopped.
While appreciating the ICC’s action, the Afghanistan Freedom Front expresses deep concern over the international community’s contradictory policies toward the Taliban and considers such approaches unacceptable.
Afghanistan under Taliban rule has become a safe and secure haven for extremist and terrorist groups, both regionally and globally. The Taliban’s so-called fight against ISIS has become a propaganda tool for their lobbying efforts across the region and the world. Over the past four years, efforts to hold the Taliban accountable for international concerns and the legitimate demands of the Afghan people have seen minimal progress.
Afghanistan’s structural diversity in terms of ethnicity and religion has no place in the Taliban’s ideology. Repression, authoritarianism, and gender apartheid remain the most visible features of the Taliban regime in the eyes of the world. Nevertheless, some countries continue to seek their national interests through “engagement” with this group of coercion and crime.
The Russian Federation, as a major world power, has recognized the Taliban’s illegitimate and usurping rule over Afghanistan. The United Nations has reduced the multi-faceted Doha process to simply facilitating “engagement” with the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Afghan people—who are the primary victims of this illegitimate rule—have been forgotten.
In such a situation, the symbolic issuance of arrest warrants by the ICC for Taliban leaders provides a glimmer of hope for justice and adherence to human values. The notable role of women-led protest and justice movements in this context is both significant and commendable.
The Afghanistan Freedom Front remains firm in its legitimate defense of the people’s right to determine their destiny. The fight against the Taliban will continue—politically, militarily, civilly, and culturally—until a system based on the people’s vote, the rule of law, and the protection of civil rights and freedoms is established.
The people of Afghanistan do not deserve to live under the Taliban’s illegitimate and stone-age rule. The only rightful place for Taliban leaders is before the court of justice—as war criminals, violators of the laws of war, and abusers of human rights.
