Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bore criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity on gender grounds.

ICC judges will now decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.

The ICC investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

In a statement, Mr Khan said the two men were “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women”.

Opposition to the Taliban government is “brutally repressed through the commission of crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts”, he added.

The persecution was committed from at least 15 August 2021 until the present day, across Afghanistan, the statement said.

Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, he participated in Islamist groups fighting against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.

Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on behalf of the Taliban during discussions with US representatives in 2020.

The ICC prosecutor’s office told the BBC that issues slowed down the pace of the investigation, including “the lack of cooperation” from the Taliban authorities.

“Due to fear, individuals with important information for the investigation are frequently unwilling to come forward,” the office added.

The Taliban government is yet to comment on the ICC statement.

Nader Nadery, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Wilson Center who participated in peace talks between the previous Afghan government and the Taliban, said that many Afghan women had been waiting for this moment.

“While it might not immediately change things, it sends a strong message that there won’t be impunity,” he told the BBC.

“It builds hope for many of those activists and Afghan women on the ground that probably there is a way forward and keeping that hope alive, I believe, is a major contribution immediately.”

The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, 20 years after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in the fallout of the 9/11 attacks in New York, but its government has not been formally recognised by any other foreign power.

“Morality laws” have since meant women have lost dozens of rights on the country.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prevented from accessing secondary and higher education – some one-and-a-half million have been deliberately deprived of schooling.

The Taliban has repeatedly promised they would be re-admitted to school once a number of issues were resolved – including ensuring the curriculum was “Islamic”. This has yet to happen.

Beauty salons have been shut down and women are prevented from entering public parks, gyms and baths.

A dress code means they must be fully covered and strict rules have banned them from travelling without a male chaperone or looking a man in the eye unless they’re related by blood or marriage.

In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing off their last route to further education in the country.

Spearheading the effort was Vanuatu which, alongside other Pacific island nations, says the climate crisis poses a threat to its very existence.

“It is with a profound sense of urgency and responsibility that I stand before you today,” Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment, said as he opened the hearings on December 2.

“The outcome of these proceedings will reverberate across generations, determining the fate of nations like mine and the future of our planet,” he said.

In the two weeks that followed, dozens of countries made similar entreaties, while a handful of major fossil fuel-producing countries argued polluters should not be held responsible.

Sebastien Duyck, a senior lawyer with the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), which monitored the hearings, said the countries arguing against legal liability were in the minority.

Major polluters, including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia, Norway, and Kuwait, found themselves isolated in their attempts to play the legal system to serve their self-interests and insulate themselves from accountability,” Duyck said in a statement.

“It is time to break this cycle of harm and impunity,” he added.

The ICJ’s 15 judges from around the world must now consider two questions: what are countries obliged to do under international law to protect the climate and environment from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions?

And what are the legal consequences for governments when their acts, or lack of action, have significantly harmed the climate and environment?

Among countries that provided oral statements during the hearings was the State of Palestine, which joined other developing nations in calling for international law to “take centre stage in protecting humanity from the dangerous path of human-made destruction resulting from climate change”.

The Palestinian statement also offered insights into the ways that Israel’s illegal occupation is both causing climate change and hurting Palestinians’ ability to respond to it.

“There can be no doubt that the ongoing illegal Israeli belligerent occupation of Palestine and its discriminatory policies have clear negative climate effects,” Ammar Hijazi, the State of Palestine’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said on Monday.

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, testified in support of Vanuatu’s case.

“The climate crisis that we face today is the result of the historical and ongoing actions of industrialised nations, which have reaped the benefits of rapid economic growth, powered by colonial exploitation and carbon-intensive industries and practices,” Elizabeth Exposto, chief of staff to Timor-Leste’s prime minister, said on Thursday.

“These nations, representing only a fraction of the global population, are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis,” she added, “and yet, the impacts of climate change do not respect borders.

”The hearings come after 132 countries at the United Nations General Assembly voted in March 2023 to support Vanuatu’s push for an opinion from the ICJ on the legal obligations nations are under to protect current and future generations from climate change.

The turn to courts to spur action on climate change also reflects a growing degree of dissatisfaction among some governments at the lack of progress in UN climate negotiations, where decisions are based on consensus.

The most recent COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, concluded with rich countries pledging to contribute $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations combat the effects of climate change.

But the Climate Action Network International, a network of 1,900 civil society groups in more than 130 countries, described the deal as a “joke”, when compared with the costs developing countries are facing as climate change worsens.

As Regenvanu noted in his statement for Vanuatu, “it is unconscionable that the COP failed to reach any agreement on cutting emissions”.

“There is an urgent need for a collective response to climate change grounded not in political convenience but in international law.”

The blast, which occurred at 06:15 local time (05:15 GMT) on Saturday, demolished five homes in the Tarwekamp area of the city.Police are exploring “all avenues” that could have led to the incident, with the arrests suggesting a potential criminal motive.

The suspects are being held in restrictive custody, only allowed contact with their lawyers, and are expected to appear in court later this week.

“Further arrests cannot be ruled out,” officials announced.

On Saturday night, we met local people trudging around in the rain between fire trucks and police vans.

The quiet neighbourhood has been shaken by the loss of six people and the uncertainty surrounding the nature of, and possible reason behind, the blast.

Among the victims were three members of the same family – a 45-year-old father, his partner, 41, and their 17-year-old daughter. Their 8-year-old son miraculously survived.

Three other men – aged 31, 44, and 63 – were also killed. Among them was a civil engineer from Greece, who was reportedly “in love with the Netherlands”.

Four others were rescued from the rubble of their former homes.Several vehicles have been seized – though it’s unclear if any are the car seen speeding away from the scene shortly after the explosion.

Police have received dozens of tip-offs and are appealing for more witnesses and images from pet cameras or dashcams.

Forensic teams are poised to resume their investigation once the crime scene is deemed safe.The explosion’s impact has extended beyond the immediate casualties.

Four people were hospitalised, including two who had been sleeping in the basement of a bar at the time and were treated for smoke inhalation.

A bridal store next door to the bar was completely destroyed, while another ground-floor bar’s wine stock remarkably remained intact. An artist’s studio was also totally decimated.

Many residents were evacuated and remain in shelters while structural damage is assessed.

Firefighters rushed to the scene to put out a fire that caused the collapse of several homes in the city’s Tarwekamp area at around 06:15 (05:15 GMT).

Rescuers are looking for up to 20 people thought to have been there at the time of the blast. Four have been pulled out of the rubble so far.

The cause of the explosion is not yet clear, but Dutch police said a car drove away “at very high speed” shortly after, and have appealed for witnesses.

Dutch media reported five flats were destroyed in the explosion.

Rescue teams with sniffer dogs have been deployed to sift through the debris, but parts of the site remain too dangerous to access.

Fourteen-year-old Adam Muller told the AFP news agency the explosion “felt like an earthquake”.

“I was asleep and suddenly there was this huge bang,” he said.”I looked out of the window and just saw flames. It’s a massive shock,” he added.

National police commissioner in the Netherlands Janny Knol said there was “disbelief and uncertainty” in the community.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima said in a statement: “We sympathise with all those who have been personally affected or who fear for the fate of their loved ones.”

Police are expected to provide an update at 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT).

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague will hear testimony from nearly 100 countries including Vanuatu, the Pacific island nation that initiated the effort to get a legal opinion.

The hearing will attempt to answer key questions as to what countries should do to fight climate change and, critically, what should they do to repair damages linked to rising temperatures.

While the outcome is not legally binding, it could give extra weight to climate change lawsuits all over the world.

The idea to get the court to issue a legal opinion was originally proposed by law students in Fiji five years ago.

It was then taken up by Vanuatu, an island nation with bitter experience of the impacts of rising temperatures and sea levels.

Last year, around 80% of the population were directly impacted by a double cyclone.The extent of the damage prompted the government to declare a six-month state of emergency.

Under pressure from Vanuatu and many other nations, the UN General Assembly referred two important climate questions to the international judges of the ICJ.

These relate to the obligations that countries have under international law to protect the Earth’s climate system from polluting greenhouse gas emissions.

But they also asked the court to rule on the legal consequences of these obligations in cases where states “by their acts and omissions, have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment.”

Vanuatu will be the first country to give evidence at today’s hearing in the Netherlands.

“We are on the frontline of climate change impact,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuautu’s special envoy, told journalists ahead of the hearing.

“Our call for an advisory opinion from the ICJ on climate change is at a pivotal moment… one that sets clear the international legal obligations for climate action.”

While the decision of the court is non-binding, the outcome could be used in other legal cases where small island states are seeking financial recompense from the developed world over the loss and damage they have suffered as a result of historic emissions of planet warming gases.

The court case comes just a week after the end of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.

The decision taken there by the richer world to provide $300bn a year in climate finance by 2035 provoked anger among developing nations who argued it was completely insufficient for their needs.

In the Hague, the court will also hear from a range of countries including the US and China, as well as representatives of the oil producing group OPEC.

The hearings will last until December 13 with the court’s opinion expected in 2025.