US Opposition to International Criminal Court about the Case of Afghanistan

پژوهش نامه ایرانی سیاست بین الملل

Article 7, Volume 10, Issue 1 - Serial Number 19, December 2021, Pages 177-204   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/irlip.2021.21381.0

Authors

seyed mehdi seyyedzadeh sani¹; mohammad tahan toroqi^{* 2}

¹Assistant professor of law and criminology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

²P.hD student in Criminal law and criminology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

US opposition to the Court culminated in the prosecution of Afghanistan situation. Many US soldiers were prosecuted by the ICC prosecutor, and the US therefore placed additional pressure on the Court. The pressure went so far that the Pre-Trial chamber did not consider continuing the prosecution of international crimes in Afghanistan in the interests of justice and ordered the investigation to be suspended. The ICC Prosecutor appealed against this issue. On 5 March 2020, the Appeals chamber of the ICC decided unanimously to authorize the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan. The present study, with a descriptive-analytical method, will first make a brief reference to the course of US actions against the ICC; Then, by reviewing and analyzing the verdict issued by the Preliminary chamber of the Court regarding the case of Afghanistan, the issue of whether the actions of the United State had an impact on the performance of the Court or not; Finally, the latest developments in Afghanistan situation will be reviewed in the ICC, and in particular in the Appeals chamber. eventually, according to recent rulings, the Court is currently in a high position in the confrontation between the Court and the United States, and the investigation into the alleged crimes has been authorized by US officials and forces, but this legal battle is still ongoing. Its fate is uncertain; Because, assuming that the investigation is completed by the prosecutor, the presence of US officials in the trial process is a matter of serious doubt, and on the other hand, a trial in absentia is not conceivable, and this will be another major challenge in this confrontation.

Keywords

War Crimes in Afghanistan; Interest of Justice; International Criminal Court; Security Council; Rome Statute

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