International court approves Afghanistan investigation

 Appeals judges at International Criminal Court gave green light Thursday for prosecutors to open an investigation targeting Taliban, Afghan forces and U.S. military and intelligence personnel for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

global court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a pretrial chamber’s rejection in April last year of Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s request to open a probe in Afghanistan.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Judges are set to rule on an appeal by International Criminal Court prosecutors against a decision rejecting an investigation into atrocities committed by all sides in Afghanistan conflict — including U.S. forces.

Thursday’s hearing could clear way for Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to open a full-blown investigation into alleged crimes by Taliban, Afghan government forces and U.S. forces at secret detention centers.

At a hearing in December, prosecutors argued that pretrial judges at global court overstepped ir powers in April last year when y refused to authorize an investigation.

In a decision that drew fierce criticism from human rights activists, pretrial chamber said an investigation would t be in interests of justice because it was unlikely to le to successful prosecutions.

After a preliminary probe in Afghanistan that lasted more than a dece, Bensouda asked judges in vember 2017 to authorize a far-reaching investigation.

She said re is information that members of U.S. military and intelligence ncies “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrs upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and or locations, principally in 2003-2004 period.”

She also said Taliban and or insurgent groups have killed more than 17,000 Afghan civilians since 2009, including some 7,000 targeted killings, and that Afghan security forces are suspected of torturing prisoners at government detention centers.

Thursday’s hearing comes days after an ambitious peace deal was signed by U.S. and Taliban.

Even if an investigation is authorized, prospects of meaningful cooperation by any of sides in Afghanistan are dim.

At December hearing, government of Afghanistan said it objected to investigation and has set up a special unit to investigate war crimes. ICC is a court of last resort that only takes on cases if domestic jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to prosecute.

United States does t recognize court and refuses to cooperate with it.

re was official U.S. delegation at December’s appeal hearing but President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, appeared on behalf of European branch of American Center for Law and Justice and told judges that U.S. position would t change.

He told appeals judges that “it is t in interests of justice to waste court’s resources while igring reality of principled n-cooperation.”