Criminal investigation

‘Not appropriate’: US rejects ICC report alleging war crimes by military, CIA in Afghanistan

The US has dismissed the ICC’s investigation of potential war crimes committed in Afghanistan as being not “warranted” or “appropriate.” Washington praised its own “robust” system of accountability, saying that it does not fall under the ICC’s jurisdiction.

“We do not believe that an ICC examination or investigation with respect to the actions of US personnel in relation to the situation in Afghanistan is warranted or appropriate,” US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Tuesday, referring to the International Criminal Court's preliminary probe of alleged wrongdoing by US personnel. 

In a report issued Monday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there was “reasonable basis to believe” that the US Army and the CIA committed actions and resorted to interrogation techniques “amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape.”

In doing so, the US might have violated several provisions of Article 8 of the ICC Rome Statute, Bensouda said.